Interference Inc. is looking for new hires that are involved in the interactive technology domain. I’ve been working with Interference for more than a year now and it’s been great. This may be the job for you! You can find the information below.

Company: Interference Inc.
Positions: We are looking for a PROGRAMMER and an INTERACTIVE ENGINEER
Position Type: Full-Time

Experience:
Candidates who have worked/have familiarity with multi-touch platforms previously and are eager to explore and learn more in a fast paced marketing/technology environment creating installations for major
global brands.

The position for the first 3 months is a probation period where the person is hired as an independent contractor and paid 1099. Depending on review and evaluation, the candidate is then hired full-time with
benefits: full medical, 401K, and 2 weeks of vacation.

Location: New York, NY
Start Date: ASAP

THE COMPANY
Interference Inc. is a world-renowned experiential marketing agency specializing in integrated, guerrilla and buzz marketing. Out of Interference, The SuperTouch Group was born in 2009, bringing creative technology offerings to the same impressive roster of clients. The SuperTouch mission is to generate wonder through simple, fun, entertaining and educational uses of interactive technology. We create innovative products for people to interact with technology in unique and compelling ways, and ideally away from the platforms that they are used to. SuperTouch develops Interactive Mirrors, touch surfaces, live gaming and creative custom technology builds as well as the back-end programming.

JOB SUMMARY
The Programmer and Interactive Engineer will report directly to the project’s Lead Engineer and to the Head of Production/Account. Qualified candidates should possess a couple of key skills itemized in the lists below.

PROGRAMMING SKILLS (Please specify where you are proficient)

• Proficiency with Flash/Flex/Actionscript 3, .NET/C#/WPF, Python, Java, C++ (or others, please specify)
• Knowledge of Computer Vision (OpenCV, Augmented Reality Frameworks)
• Knowledge of microcontrollers (arduino or similar) and working with sensors
• Proficiency with openFrameworks, processing, max/msp, or pd
• Knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite including, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects
• Knowledge of computer networking

ENGINEERING SKILLS (Please specify where you are proficient)

• Experience in architecture, hardware design, and/or fabrication
• Ability to source, test and assess hardware for fabrication and to assemble working prototypes
• Experience in soldering, electronics, and lab testing
• Experience in interactive or touch technology with an emphasis in multi-touch computing

REQUIREMENTS

• Extremely organized individual who is a self-starter and able to learn quickly in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to think creatively, multi-task, and go beyond off-the-shelf solutions
• Strong logistical, time management and planning skills when implementing creative solutions for client deadlines
• The individual must be polished and professional and be prepared to interact with high level clientele onsite

Please note, the Interactive Engineer position may require travel to install, maintain, and breakdown
technologies across the U.S. as well as internationally. Candidates applying for the position must be able to
travel with the necessary documentation, willing to travel 1-2 times per month, and maintain a valid driver’s
license.

IF INTERESTED, PLEASE SUBMIT RESUMES TO: Christine Lane, Christine@interferenceinc.com

You can download and save the job description below:

Interferece Job Description 10_07_13 Supertouch Tech Description.doc

Date:	January 1, 1970
MD5 Hash:	a32db82cb70c1bd7f509df0562a9c45e

32.0 KiB 52 Downloads Details...

Wall Pong is an interactive multi-player multitouch pong type game I wrote in AS3 a couple years ago. The aim is to get the ball into the opposing goal. You can see Wong within my Audiotouch OS software. I’ve been meaning to release the source code and game for quite some time and finally I had the chance to clean up the code (it still could use WAY more cleaning and probably re-factoring), but it’s in good enough shape for others to use.

I’m hoping to convert this version to use the new native touch api in flash CS5.

You can download the application on techsparked here!!

Help by digging this story!!!

After lots of hard work, I am proud to announce the open beta launch of a new social platform I’ve been developing for creative and emergent interactive technology called techsparked. If you like my blog, the MTmini, Audiotouch or any of my work – you’re going to love techsparked!

If you’re familiar with multitouch, you’re probably familiar with Jeff Han’s TED demo. In it, there’s an example of a lava application that shows an interesting use of multitouch.

A few months ago, I was trying to work on something similar.

The following is what I came up with. I never had the chance to finish and was only able to add mouse support at the time. So, here’s a preview of what might come to a multitouch screen near you at some point in the future.

It’s pretty slow since it uses bitmapdata and filters and the code is a bit of a Frankenstein of information I found online about ‘metaballs’. If I get a chance, i’ll see if I can get the code out.

Meanwhile, have some fun! Click around and push/move the lava!

What do you think? Lava enough for you?

On my last project I had to use a gesture to initiate an event. Due to this, I recently started experimenting in creating a simple multitouch version of some gesture engines that are available. I’ve come across three that are already available in AS3 and chose to start with the $1 gesture algorithm http://depts.washington.edu/aimgroup/proj/dollar/. It only seems fitting to start with this one since Andy Wilson of microsoft research (and many multitouch devices) had a hand in it’s development.

Like most algorithms, this one matches points drawn with a template that’s already stored. After the gesture is finished, it is matched up against templates in the database and given a percentage of how much it matched it’s closest template (from 0-1). One of the coolest things about this engine is that it’s orientation-less. This means, no matter how you’re orientated on the surface it’ll still recognize the gesture.

The main thing I contributed to the already created $1 gesture port was the ability to have multiple simultaneous gestures occurring at once. This means a single user can perform more than one gesture at a time or multiple users can perform their own gestures while someone else is using the device. However, there are flaws with this algorithm that I’m not fond of  that are performance (speed) related. I’ve only tested with up to 4 touches though so if someone can test with more, please let me know how it runs.

Currently, the demo isn’t fully segregated form the core gesture classes and therefore there’s still some work to be done so that the gesture classes can be used without the demo itself. In the meantime, go ahead and test this out and make sure to give some feedback; it also works with the mouse. The demo allows you to draw a gesture and if it matches on in the database, that gesture will ‘light up.’

The tolerance is set at 80% and therefore if a gesture doesn’t match 80% of a template, it’s not recognized. Both the source and swf file are included. To test the demo, just load up the TouchGestureDemo.swf in flashplayer or a web browser.

Stay tuned for more on this as i’ll show the basics for using this in your own projects in case you need help.

Thanks to Tito (Mathieu Vibrel) and the pyMT crew for pointing me in the right direction.

Gesture Demo gesture.zip Version: 1.0

Multitouch Gesture Engine Demo

Author:	Seth Sandler
Date:	October 13, 2009
MD5 Hash:	f59b34d4779b6959bfd2a62d0dcf00df

102.8 KiB 4950 Downloads Details...

Well, it’s about time I released another application right? If anyone has ever played Bloom on the iphone, I’m sure you’ll recognize my port from iphone to table.

If you’re not familiar with bloom, it’s a very simple music creation application. Press anywhere on the screen to create circles that grow and ‘bloom.’ As they fade out and re-appear, they play a note. The note is based on the x-axis. As you move right, the notes go higher.

Click the above image to play

How to use:

-Press on screen (mouse, touch, multi-touch)
-Rollover/touch/click already created circles to remove them and their sound
-Press the upper left ‘clear’ button to clear all circles and sounds on screen.

Downloads:

Source Code: 

Bloom Source Code bloom_src.zip Version: 1

Author:	Seth Sandler
Date:	November 18, 2009
MD5 Hash:	37030ba99feb9663b98f0c755061bcca

1.2 MiB 21861 Downloads Details...

Binary Application:

Bloom Application bloom.zip Version: 1

Author:	Seth Sandler
Date:	November 18, 2009
MD5 Hash:	d4302be06f674dd3f68b7d38c52256d6

1.9 MiB 21021 Downloads Details...

The source folder should include everything you need to run the application. You don’t need to copy anything into your current AS3 directory. I’ve commented the Main.as file very well and it should give a good look into making simple applications with the AS3 Touch API.

Thanks to Christian for the background color tweening effect.

Check out my Bloom thread I started here: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/3867/

Check out olo:idea video below that shows the Bloom running on a large multitouch display.

Check out bassmang5 video below that shows the Bloom and my other applications running on his MTmini! You can see his post on NUIGroup here: http://nuigroup.com/forums/viewthread/3911/

Here’s some pictures from the second event where AudioTouch was on display.

It’s been a loooong way for many of you, but finally the new tracker has been made public!

tbeta promotional screenshot

Checkout the tbeta website where you can download and read the getting started full guide to see how easy it is to use!

http://tbeta.nuigroup.com

note: if you like the old touchlib tracker better, you can still use it if you’re on windows.

Well, I haven’t posted in a while, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped development. Actually, I’ve done the opposite and have been developing with a release date coming soon (hopefully).

I applied for GSoC a couple months ago and my project was chosen and I am have been a student under Natural User Interface Group (NUIGroup) ever since. For my project, I’ve been working on a multitouch framework/lux.

For the last few weeks (with the help of my mentor Christian Moore) I’ve been working on porting over touchlib (the main tracker of the NUIGroup community) to openframeworks. A few reasons we chose to use openframeworks is because it’s (1) Cross-platform (it’ll work on windows/mac/linux), (2) It’s easy to add and develop on (minimal coding experience required).

If you didn’t catch that, this means we will have a new, full functional tracker that works on Mac! Many have been waiting for this! =)

So, here’s the summary. The new tracker has the following features:

• Filters (dynamic background subtraction, highpass, amplify/scaler, threshold) – This means it’ll work with all optical setups (FTIR, DI, LLP, DSI). More filters can be added later (for optimization), but the current filters work for all setups. Also, you no longer need an ‘invert filter.’ Whether you’re working with dark blobs or light blobs, the tracker will work the same!
• Camera switcher – Have more than one camera on your computer? Now you can press a button and switch to the next camera on your computer without having to exit the application.
• Input switcher - Want to use test videos instead of a live camera? Go ahead, press a button and it’ll switch to video input.
• Input flipper – Now you can flip the camera vertical or horizontal if it’s the wrong way.
• Dynamic mesh calibration - For people with small or large tables, now you can add calibration points (for large displays) or create less points (smaller displays).
• Warp - Used for getting a rough calibration. By moving 4 points on the source image, you can warp the image to the projection area which will quickly calibrate your setup. This is pretty CPU heavy though, but may work well for people without projection (MTmini) and need to calibrate some.
• TUIO Send – Although their will be a non GUI mode/version of the application which will have greater speed, you can send OSC TUIO messages directly from the configapp for quick testing (no need to exit and load a seperate file).
• Camera and application FPS viewer – Now you can see the framerate of both the tracker and camera that you’re getting.
• Demo view – Why should you have to exit the config tracker to try a quick demo? Now you can test a simple demo and make sure calibration is how you want it.
• New GUI – The new interface is hopefully more intuitive and easier to understand/use than in the past.
• Cross-platform - This will work on windows, mac, and linux! Whoo!

Screenshot of new tracker (still in development)

I can’t give out all the deailts, but many more features (fiducial tracking ) are being discussed for further development. Stay tuned for the release and arrival of LUX which will make this whole process of developing multitouch applications a lot more organized! =)

So the questions is…when will this be released? Unfortunately, I don’t give release dates since I don’t like disappointing people if it doesn’t meet the deadline. Fortunately, I can say that we’re not far from making this available relatively soon (i’ll let you guess what that means).

Feel free to comment with your thoughts, hopes, and dreams…. =)