Interactive

Portuguese company Displax has announced the development of a “skin” that can turn virtually any surface into a multi-touch display. Based on capacitive technology, the “skin” is developed on a thinner-than-paper polymer film that turns a surface, be it glass, plastic or wood, curved or flat, into an interactive touch screen. The interface is so sensitive that it even detects when you blow on it, registering both the intensity and direction of the air flow.  Read More

Board games aren’t necessarily bound to become obsolete - at least, not if researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada have anything to say about it. They will change, however. Queen’s Human Media Lab (HML) recently unveiled a prototype board game that uses traditional flat cardboard tiles (i.e: cards), but the images on those tiles are projected onto them by an overlooking digital projector. The images stay on the tiles as they’re moved around by the players, courtesy of an overlooking camera that tracks their movements. This means that the tiles could display moving video, that their display could change entirely depending on what’s happening in the game, or that it could be customized by the players. Monopoly night may never be the same.  Read More

In addition to its recent 7-year / 150,000km warranty announcement, Kia has created further interest with the showing of its UVO in-car voice and touch activated communication and entertainment system. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft, the system offers users an easy to use interactive hands-free alternative that uses speech recognition for making and taking calls, sending text messages and managing in-car music. Featuring a 4.3” full color touchscreen display and built-in 1GB storage with the ability to rip CD’s and MP3’s onto the system’s “Jukebox”, the open platform UVO system also doubles as a rear view camera when the vehicle is in reverse.  Read More

Scientists at the University of Tokyo have found a curious way to translate drawings and three-dimensional shapes into music. The prototype laser-based musical instrument known as scoreLight uses 3D tracking technology to generate real-time sounds based on the shapes and colors it encounters along the way, transforming doodling into a truly synthesized experience.  Read More

After experimenting with things like origami (May edition) and e-ink (October 2008 edition), Esquire magazine is running a special "augmented reality" edition in December where readers use custom-designed software and a webcam to interact with the pages being viewed and get access to 3D animated video content.  Read More

Nokia has teamed up with Sesame Street to create an interactive reading experience that can involve grandparents and grandchildren no matter how far apart they may find themselves. The Storybook research project melds the tactile and visual pleasures of reading a real book with video conferencing technology which allows distant relatives to take an active part in a child's literacy development.  Read More

Swedish researchers have developed an interactive touchscreen 3D autopsy table that allows pathologists to examine virtual representations of real bodies in minute detail and from numerous viewing angles. Using data provided by scans of an actual body, the table allows the user to remove layers such as skin and muscle, add or remove tissue and circulatory systems, zoom in and out and cut through sections with a virtual knife. The video below is a "must watch".  Read More

Around the same time we reported that Nickelodeon was teaming up with Mattel to produce an older, “tweenage” version of the Dora the Explorer, an explosion of outrage erupted from parents concerned by the teaser silhouette which had many thinking Dora was to become a “sexed up” version of her former self. They need not have worried, as the recently unveiled “Dora Links” doll recreates the much loved kids icon as an “age appropriate” interactive doll that connects to a computer via USB and offers an educational and fun experience both on and offline.  Read More