The avatar: your real body guide

This is too cool. Avatar Machine by Marc Owens is a system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a head mounted interface.

Basically you walk in the everyday world, wearing glasses that provide an exclusive replica of you as an avatar, as in role playing gaming environment. It must be unreal to try it on when you have spent hours role playing games in a row. I actually love the designer's hypothesis: "The system potentially allows for a diminished sense of social responsibility, and could lead the user to demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment." I am not sure about the diminution of sense of responsibility, but it might help the ones who have sensory difficulties in the physical world.

Definitely a project I will refer to in my PhD, talking about playing with visual perspectives, when one can walk in the everyday world from the point of view of her avatar, one might feel more "secure", with new new sense of body limits gained from an interaction with her virtual games experience. That reminds me of the movie Ben X, where the main actor transfers his interaction in the virtual world to help him interact with the physical world.

Anyway, great project!

A video

DIY, this new black!

DIY is the new black for the gaming industry which has adopted not only the DIY but also the craft culture in its new game for Playstation 3, Little Big Planet. In little big planet, users create their characters (their mascot) with textures, zippers, colors, attitudes and their own levels, events, design their difficulties and can then share their designs with their peers and play online.



The level creation is the most intriguing, because you got to design triggers and events like switches and buttons. It can be pretty simple if it is just to open a door to the next level but pretty rad ;) when designing a multi-phase boss fight against millions of tech spiders! Also the sharing component is pretty elaborate as other users can rate your game and offer descriptive keywords to your creation, from "brilliant" to "repetitive". So be sure to invite the right friends who can understand your style!!! You can also invite guest mascot stars! Isn't that amazing?!



You are only allowed to create 3 levels that you share on the server side. If on the server the company deems that you are good at creating levels, you can then create some more. If the company decides that your levels are not good enough, then you are stuck and you need to cancel these levels until you are being granted the right to create some more! So that is interesting because it shows that the company is afraid that users aren't gonna design levels good enough and that this game relies heavily on people's ability to create neat levels. If users are not gonna create brilliant designs, then this will be a failure because it only comes with 3 small levels ... This is like a creation suite for gamers that welcome creative individuals into playing, creating and sharing! I cannot wait to try it. If only they would send a free copy to designers, they would have great levels designed!!

In the meantime, here is a video of the trailer:


Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

For the beauty of the eyes ...

A video on the beach by Keith Loutit that resembles stop motion (effect Tilt Shift) found on this super neat French blog Fubiz. The video animates beach lovers that shape like sharp color points using the fashionable effect called Tilt Shift, effect I used a lot to present my sculpture work, playing with a unusual depth of field, to create optical illusions and to give it a maquette look and feel. This effect is apparently also called smallgantics, popular effect based on a Thom Yorke music video.
For the amateurs of the animations with the beach, don't forget to check “la plage” by Bokanovski.


Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Another video by Keith Loutit where the effect is even more stunning!


Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

A very satisfying video of human motions within the light. Large format camera and filmed in high definition, the video entertains the viewer with light coordinated with motions. It is pleasing and becomes satisfying to watch the dancer twisting and jumping throughout the streets, playing with water and flowers. The soundtrack is a nice add-on by M83 (You appearing, Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun), Sigur Ros (Staralfur) et Besnard Lakes (Devastation). Enjoy!


Human Movement in Light from Jordan Clarke on Vimeo.


Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

Film assembly using toy gestures

My full paper Picture This! Film assembly using toy gestures has been accepted as a full paper for the technical conference on ubiquitous computing: UbiComp 2008. With an acceptance rate of less than 19% for technical papers in the field, it is very encouraging!

Abstract
We present Picture This! a new input device embedded in children’s toys for video composition. It consists of a new form of interaction for children’s capturing of storytelling with physical artifacts. It functions as a video and storytelling performance system in that children craft videos with and about character toys as the system analyzes their gestures and play patterns. Children’s favorite props alternate between characters and cameramen in a film. As they play with the toys to act out a story, they conduct film assembly. We position our work as ubiquitous computing that supports children’s tangible interaction with digital materials. During user testing, we observed children ages 4 to 10 playing with Picture This!. We assess to what extent gesture interaction with objects for video editing allows children to explore visual perspectives in storytelling. A new genre of Gesture Object Interfaces as exemplified by Picture This relies on the analysis of gestures coupled with objects to represent bits.

Introduction

We connect to our world using our senses. Every one of our senses is a knowledge shopper that grounds us in our surroundings [1]: with touch, one feels the texture of life, with hearing one perceives even the subtlest murmurs of our existence, with vision one clarifies their instincts. But human senses are not only about perception. We use gesture to apprehend, comprehend and communicate. We speak to ultimately translate and exchange with others. We visualize, record, and playback events using our memory to reflect on our history and to be immersed in experience. We as children and adults are engaged in everyday pretense and symbolic play. We embed and later withdraw from the world, using imagination to project ourselves into situations [35]. Our mental constructs are necessary to reach a deeper understanding of our relationship with our environment [3]. Children are offered stories by adults and are driven into fantasy play. They use toys to externalize and elaborate their mental constructions [8]. With character toys they create interrelationships and plots, a means to expose their social knowledge: knowing about human beings and social relationships [33]. If the toy has an immediately accessible visual perspective, a new world is opened to the child. The toy brings her into exploring visual and narrative perspectives of character props, expanding the discovery of her environment.

We imagine a world in which people play, create and exchange visual narratives with ease and transparency. Motivated by the playful improvisational environment of child storytelling with toys, we have developed a new category of video editing tools progressing towards the child’s natural expression of play. In Picture This! we combine the activity of play with the video making process. Whereas play emphasizes spontaneity and improvisation, video making necessitates structure and composition. We were inspired by the theater play of Goethe’s childhood [35], investigating what technology could add to the narrative and play experience. We use technology to offer visual feedback regarding how the scene looks like from the point of view of an imaginary audience. The child storyteller enters the world of the movie maker. Cameras become part of a toy system showing how things look from a toy’s point of view. They can be integrated in Lego people, car drivers, and even coffee mugs! The video process, supported by gesture induced editing, benefits children in practicing social interrelationships and visual perspective taking.



More about the system ->here <-

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

New interaction technique for timeline control in video scenes

Dragon is a research project by Thorsten Karrer, Malte Weiss, and others at the Media Computing Group, RWTH Aachen University in Germany.

Objects on video scenes are used to control their trajectories in time, basically any object that appears in the video becomes a slider that can control the video timeline. The project is meant to be a "more" frame-accurate in-scene video navigation than usual systems and during studies users found more natural the use of this video navigation "slider" than traditional timeline sliders. It seems to me a great WYSIWYG for video!



->Video <-

Abstract

We present DRAGON, a direct manipulation interaction technique for frame-accurate navigation in video scenes.
This technique benefits tasks such as professional and amateur video editing, review of sports footage, and forensic analysis of video scenes.
By directly dragging objects in the scene along their movement trajectory, DRAGON enables users to quickly and precisely navigate to a specific point in the video timeline where an object of interest is in a desired location. Examples include the specific frame where a sprinter crosses the finish line, or where a car passes a traffic light.
Through a user study, we show that DRAGON significantly reduces task completion time for in-scene navigation tasks by an average of 19–42% compared to a standard timeline slider.
Qualitative feedback from users is also positive, with multiple users indicating that the DRAGON interaction felt more natural than the traditional slider for in-scene navigation.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
.............................................................................................
Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Passion

These little things in the dark ...

Our childhood was filled with creatures hidden in the dark. The feeling of them existing outside of our imagination was a source of interaction with the physical world, creating places for them to live. Our imaginary friends were sharing our secrets, they were our closest partner in the world discovery. One book that I recommend on the subject is The House of Make-Believe: Children's Play and the Developing Imagination by Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer, one of my favorite book on imagination and child development.


Children interacting with Kage no Sekai

When I discovered Kage no Sekai, I immediately felt in love with it. The piece projects cute tiny creatures on shadows -and only on shadows- so that anyone can play with them, try to grab them, make them exist in specific places with shadows created just for them, or even trap them (see video of the children interaction with the system).


Photo by the authors of Kage no Sekai

"This device expresses this perspective not by using existing media but in the real world itself. The mechanism is concealed, giving the device the appearance of an ordinary piece of furniture. Although at first glance it looks like a regular wooden table, if you look at the shadows on its surface you'll see the movement of mysterious life forms. When you approach it to have a better look, they sense your presence and hide away. They do not emerge while human shadows are cast over the table, but the life forms hiding within a distant shadow are watching them."

Video


Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
.............................................................................................
Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Lesson

Documentary: last in class!

Via my research lab, I heard about this ongoing documentary-making on the "last in class!". The documentary will be a light-hearted look at our culture's growing obsession with achievement as explored through the profiles of several people who finished at the bottom of their college (and in some cases, also high school) class and the somewhat unexpected, often ironic, lives they have lived since.

Check out the web site as they are looking for these exceptional low profiles!



The call:
1. We already have a number of possible people to profile for the film
(from a country music star to a serial entrepreneur and beyond) but are
always interested in hearing from, and about, more. If you know of anyone
who might fit the bill, please send them our way (info [at] lastinclass [.] com).

2. As you will see from the website, as part of this project, we are also
putting together a companion piece of truly memorable report cards and
report card comments, in particular. If you have any you would like to
share, please do.

3. Finally, please pass this email along to your friends and colleagues.
We know that those who finished last are just as rare as those who finished
first but we know that they are out there and probably the source of far
better stories to be told.


Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
.............................................................................................
Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Lesson

A ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch

TosPom is a ball-shaped camera that takes pictures while playing catch created By Izumi Yagi and Mitsuyoshi Kimura.



When the photographer throws TosPom to the object, the object’s face will be taken automatically as the object catches it, and the picture will be shown on the display. With TosPom, the act of taking pictures becomes a mutual, interactive activity that involves both the photographer and the object while both parties engage in a fun activity of playing catch. Moreover, the photographer can draw out a more natural and relaxed expression from the object.

Video


Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
.............................................................................................
Blog Jouons Blog Maison Blog Lesson

Animating the city

Glisse

Nicolas Lelièvre experiences images, spaces and sounds. He created this movie with dancer Jean-Baptiste André as a focus on the "overinvestment" of urban space. Characters in the movie become puppets with urban objects pseudo-animated. Music by Mils.


Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Vein Viewer

The VeinViewer by Luminetx™ uses a combination of near-infrared light and patented technologies to image vascular structures, thus allowing physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to clearly see accessible vasculature (or lack thereof) in real time, directly on the surface of the skin. The near-IR camera located the subcutaneous veins and project their location onto the surface of the skin.

This technology reminds me of the device used to visualize inside a baby in the e-baby's video.


Screenshot of the e-baby video - 2003
Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Painting on real objects

Deepak Bandyopadhyay, Ramesh Raskar, Henry Fuchs have built a prototype system for virtual painting on real movable objects. A project from 2001 that should by now be easier to democratize!

Imagine a world where all the objects around you can be animated and augmented interactively in real time; where you can, for instance, paint virtual designs on objects in the environment, which then stay in place as you modify or move them around! This opens up new possibilities for interaction in augmented environments, and gives rise to new applications in tele-immersion, medicine, architecture, art and user interfaces.

Check also Kimiko Ryokai's digital paintbrush. Her brush allows artists to draw digitally with an "ink" they just picked up from their immediate environment.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Insect telepresence

Suppose we can make a miniature camera whose motion can be controlled by a human. Put this camera in a colony of insects, and the human will gain a whole new perspective on the insects and their biology. Blow up the image to scale down the human appropriately, and amplify the insects sounds as well, and you have a complete telepresent experience that is incredibly exciting and educational at the same time. Technically, camera technology, optics and manipulation are well up to the task. A complete insect telepresence exhibit is now being constructed for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's entrance, in collaboration with the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, by Stacy All, Angela Demke and Ben Shamah at the Toy Robot Initiative.



Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure
.............................................

Algorithmic film assembly using toy gestures

A new input device for video capturing and editing! Designed for young children, ages five and up, it allows them to craft compelling movies through the motion analysis of their interaction with toys.


A child playing with Picture This and his Naruto action figure

Continuing my research on perspective taking and tangible video editing, I recently finished the development of Picture This, a video editing and capturing device designed for young children. It allows them to craft compelling movies through the motion analysis of their interaction with toys. Children's favorite props alternate between characters and cameramen in a film. As children play with the toys to act out a story, they conduct algorithmic film assembly.

Picture This's web site.

In my prior work, Moving Pictures, I wanted to offer children the opportunity to gather imagery from their environment in the form of short video clips captured on video camera platforms modified for the application. I wanted to provide a transparent experience for the user, in which the cumbersome process of capturing and editing becomes fluid in the improvisation of a story and accessible as a way to create a final movie.

Web site for my past work on Moving Pictures.



Tangible interfaces combine operations on physical objects with digital data. I have sought to develop interfaces where either digital data can be overlaid onto physical objects in a display space or physical objects can act as handles into the digital space. The tangible handle is more than a marker or place-holder for digital data. It has the power to materialize and redefine our conception of space and content during the creative process.



If the toy had a visual perspective immediately accessible to the child, a new world would be opened to her. The toy could potentially bring the child into exploring visual and narrative perspectives of these character props, expanding her discovery and understanding of social interrelationships.

A video snippet of Picture This and a 6 minutes video for its interaction design.

The Picture this tool is an audiovisual device that combines two digital video cameras and two accelerometers. The tool captures motions, video and sound in real-time while an algorithmic video editing system composes a movie from these inputs. A motion based editing engine fluidly assembles the film as its story is being narrated, while respecting the conventions of continuity editing, namely, a sequence of shots that appear to be continuous.



This style of film editing is made possible in Picture This by detecting turn taking behaviors between the toys. Two toy props are augmented with video cameras and custom accelerometer hardware. They use the Picture This tool both as a doll hand-bag or a doll audiovisual recorder. The tool is flexible for a child to take the perspective of props she selected for her movie.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle
♥ Architectradure

Video scenarios of tech-enabled behaviors

Mobility platform videos for Intel by Ideo.

Visualizing high-tech's human-centered future by Ideo.
Tapping into the growing broadband access around the world, Intel has innovated a series of chipsets and mobile platforms that enable smarter, more efficient laptops, mobile phones, and PDAs. While these offerings represent new possibilities for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), it's not uncommon for OEMs to need an added push to invest in unproven technology. To bring to life the potential of this technology, IDEO worked with Intel to visualize what user behaviors might be enabled by the offerings. The work, which culminated in the form of three videos, points to Intel's larger shift toward human-centered technology innovation.



In looking at Intel's next-generation products, IDEO had a clear sense of the emphasis on mobility. From a design perspective, the offerings were each exciting, offering new ways for people to live and work, but lacked the cohesion of a system. To integrate the platforms, IDEO developed user scenarios that merged product, interaction, and experience as they related to such behaviors as hands-free communication, social networking, and purchasing. These user scenarios were then fully storyboarded and scripted for video production.

In depicting user behaviors through video scenarios, IDEO created a unified vision for Intel's offerings that has served to foster alignment within Intel as well as to communicate product value to OEMs and service providers.

By Architectradure

Tactile video

In reference to High touch visual

Foux de fa fa

I love this series Flight of The Conchords given to me by Aurelius. I especially loved the Foux de fa fa episode on French impersonation. It is not meant to be an accurate reflection of French. It's a representation of the public school child's exposure to French culture via outdated textbooks, 1970's film reels and Serge Gainsbourg disco era.

Lifestyle in 2057

2057 EP1 The Body featured on Discovery Channel offers mixed information between current research explorations and fictional scenarios of our lifestyle in 2057.

It is a nice effort in considering what is being done in HCI and medical research which converges into everyday scenarios. Under its over dramatic tone, the examples are sometimes tacky and stereotypical. The show could have incorporated other important issues such as affordable cutting edge technological solutions for the rest of world.

This video is fun and accessible. I loved the transplantation of a human heart, heart that can be 3d printed! Presenting a vision for a future lifestyle, this video reminds me of the American Look (1958): America lifestyle in the 50's with its *idealistic* sense for design.

Interact 2007 presentation

Today at Interact 2007 I presented my research conducted from 2002 until 2005. I presented the story of a Graphical User Interface that became a Tangible User Interface. The presentation introduced a novel approach to collecting, editing and performing visual and sound clips in real time.
The cumbersome process of capturing and editing becomes fluid in the improvisation of a story, and accessible as a way to create a final movie. It was shown how a graphical interface created for video production informs the design of a tangible environment that provides a spontaneous and collaborative approach to video creation, selection and sequencing.
Iterative design process, participatory design sessions and workshop observations with 10-12 year old users from Sweden and Ireland were presented and discussed. The limitations of interfacing video capture, editing and publication in a self-contained platform were addressed.

I uploaded my presentation in .pdf format here

Paper in .pdf

Video modeling

Two papers on video modeling. One for pretend play with toys, one for perspective taking, both for autism. Video modeling is a way for children to observe, imitate and learn the skills and behaviors of their peers.

Using video modeling and reinforcement to teach perspective-taking skills to children with autism by Linda A LeBlanc, Andrea M Coates, Sabrina Daneshvar, Marjorie H Charlop-Christy, Caroline Morris, and Blake M Lancaster (2003)

Abstract
We evaluated video modeling and reinforcement for teaching perspective-taking skills to 3 children with autism using a multiple baseline design. Video modeling and reinforcement were effective; however, only 2 children were able to pass an untrained task, indicating limited generalization. The findings suggest that video modeling may be an effective technology for teaching perspective taking if researchers can continue to develop strategies for enhancing the generalization of these new skills.

Paper

Using video modeling to teach pretend play to children with autism by Rebecca MacDonald, Michelle Clark, Elizabeth Garrigan, Madhuri Vangala.

Abstract
Children with autism often fail to develop the rich repertoires of pretend play seen in typically developing children. Video modeling is a teaching methodology that has been shown to produce rapid acquisition of a variety of skills in children with autism. The purpose of the present study was to use video modeling to teach thematic pretend play skills to two preschool children with autism. Scripted play scenarios involving up to 17 verbalizations and 15 play actions by toy figurines were videotaped using adult models. A multiple probe design within child across play sets was used to demonstrate experimental control. Children were shown the video model two times and no further prompting or reinforcement was delivered during training. Results indicated that both children acquired the sequences of scripted verbalizations and play actions quickly and maintained this performance during follow-up probes. These findings are discussed as they relate to types of play and the development of extended play repertoires in young children with autism

Paper

Video, toys and perspective taking

I discovered this fabulous experimental research on perspective taking by developmental psychologist Masuo Koyasu.

Masuo Koyasu's web site (in Japanese only).

In the 1980s, I was interested in studying the development of perspective-taking in young children. Piaget's "three mountains task" had demonstrated that children find it difficult to understand how something looks to a person who is in a different position from themselves. In fact, younger children exhibit a strong tendency to choose their own view when asked to indicate how an object looks to someone in another position, a tendency that Piaget called "egocentrism." I thought there are three dimensions of egocentrism (up and down, front and back, and left and right), and that children's difficulty in understanding different perspectives might be because they do not receive feedback about other people's perspectives. To test this hypothesis, I conducted a series of experiments with kindergarteners.


Figure 1. Experimental Situation
A:Child,B:Experimenter,C:Sample Photos,D:Place to put toy animal(s),E:Three toy animals,F:Still camera or video camera

The task in the first experiment was to face a camera set up across from them and then to arrange one to three toy animals in a way that would produce a photograph like the sample (Figure 1). Forty-three percent of the four-year-olds exhibited front and back egocentrism by placing the toy animals' backs to the camera. That tendency had mostly disappeared among the five-year-olds and six-year-olds, but it became clear that hardly any of the four- to six-year-olds could position two or three toy animals in the correct left-to-right order. In a second experiment, I used a video camera instead of a still camera and provided video feedback, showing an image of the toy animals as viewed from the opposite side on a color CRT monitor. In the control group, which was shown only the CRT monitor, the children were able to correct their front-back egocentrism on their own but were not informed of their errors. Even in the experimental group, which received instruction and practice in correcting left-right egocentrism, the effect on their post-test results was clearly small (Figure 2).


Figure 2. Mean number correct in each condition

Until the age of about seven, most children facing a teacher who says, "Let's raise our right hands" while raising his or her own right hand will raise their left hands.
Incidentally, research into perspective-taking abilities has traditionally focused on investigating how children understand other people's viewpoints, but I have noticed a serious limitation in the paradigm commonly used to study this. In the case of the "three mountains task," even if children can't directly guess the viewpoint of a person in another position, they can solve the problem by conducting a mental simulation in which they imagine that they have gone to the other person's position, or by a type of mental rotation, in which they imagine that the object has been placed on a lazy Susan and rotated to the correct position. The lack of methodological distinctions in the perspective-taking paradigm was a major problem. As I was worrying about how to think about this problem, I encountered research into "theory of mind." In particular, I spent ten months as a visiting scholar in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford from 1994 to 1995, where I had the opportunity to come into contact with the front lines of British research into cognitive development. After returning to Japan, I began studying "theory of mind," but at that time, hardly anyone else in the country was doing so. Without intending to, I have had to carry out the role of "missionary" in the field of "theory of mind" in Japan.
The most famous experiment in "theory of mind" is the false belief task (the so-called "Sally and Anne task") of Josef Perner and his colleagues. "Sally puts a doll in a basket. While Sally is away, Anne takes the doll out of the basket and puts it into a box nearby. Sally then returns and the child is asked where Sally will look for her doll." In general, three-year-olds can't pass this task, but they become able to do so between the ages of four and six. It has also been demonstrated that even high-functioning autistic children can't pass this task. It is odd that most young children are easily deceived by this task, which is no problem at all for adults. I have been observing the daily lives of children at a Kyoto kindergarten once a week for three years, as well as conducting developmental research, including the false belief task. As a result, I have obtained longitudinal data on "theory of mind" (Figure 3).


Figure 3. Results of a longitudinal study of "theory of mind"

The data presented in this figure began with 15 children, with 4 more children transferring in at the ages of four and five, for a total of 19 children at the end. Only one child regressed from being able to pass the task to failing it, but he was a boy who became extremely nervous and made mistakes in the testing situation at age five and six. The fact that I was conducting experiments on children with whom I was in contact on a daily basis made me feel that I could interpret the results more broadly.