Last weekend my multitouch table and Audiotouch software were on display at UCSD’s Music Center Openening. The turnout was good and it was great meeting the enthusiastic crowd that took the time to try out the table.

The majority really liked the simplicity of the new ‘Bloom‘ application that acts as a screen-saver type application when no other application is loaded. The kids really liked the ‘Wall Pong’ game and it was fascinating watching them take part in the interaction.

Several people asked if the installation was permanent and  based on that, I think UCSD should commission a new permanent table for the new center, what do you think (hehe)?

Below is a series of photos taken at the event. Hopefully I’ll get some extra time to do a fuller and more sophisticated writeup about the event. The age variety and technological diversity of the users that stopped by really taught me a lot about user interaction.

note: If you’re wondering why some of the images look more artistic or dramatic, it’s because I tried applying a pseudo HDR effect that I’ve been practicing. Let me know what you think.

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 21862 Downloads Details...

Binary Application:

Bloom Application bloom.zip Version: 1

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

1.9 MiB 21022 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…. =)

After waiting about 20 hours and letting the silicone rubber cure overnight, I went ahead and “unmasked” the silicone to see how it curred. From the look of it, it cured quite nicely. It isn’t completely even as far as the whole thing being completely smooth and 1mm thick, but this really shouldn’t affect it’s performance. After further inspection, I found that there were no bubbles in the silicone! Bubbles are one of the main concerns when pouring silicone yourself. I think my success had to do with mixing the A and B parts for a good amount of time (12 minutes).

As you can see, for the most part it is pretty smooth. The parts on the right side look worse than they really are.

Again, it’s not as bad as it may appear. Remember, the whole thing is only 1mm thick, so those slight raises are only 1/2mm and can’t be seen when when looking straight on.

Now off to test the silicone! Check back for results.