p></p><h3>Notes from a talk about DiamondTouch?</h3>Last week , I attended the University of Colorado computer science colloquium. It was a showcase of HCI research at MERL Technology Laboratory. I have blogged about some of my previous talks.
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p>The presentation was mostly about the DiamondTouch?, but an overview of Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratories was also presented. The DiamondTouch? is basically an electronic tablet computer, but it is controlled by touchscreens. The touch screen distinguishes users based on electrical signals. You are seated on special pads which, I believe, generate the necessary electrical signatures. This YouTube video shows the DiamondTouch? in action while a player plays World Of Warcraft with a DiamondTouch?. (For more information about YouTube licensing, read the most recent Cringely column.)
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p>Following are my notes, which I have edited loosely from the talk given by Kent Wittenburg and Kathy Ryall.
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p>[notes]
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p>First, Kent Wittenburg, one of the lab's directors:
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p>MERL is a research lab. They don't just conduct research, but each year they have a numeric goal of business impacts. These impacts can be as a standard contribution, or a product or a feature of the product. They are associated with Mitsubishi Electric (not with the automobile company).
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p>Five areas of focus which include: Computer Vision--2D/3D facial detection, object tracking, sensors and data-indoor networking audio classification ? Digital Communication-?UWB mesh networking, ZigBee?, Digital Video-?MPEG encoding highlights detection, H.264. Interesting anecdote: Realtime video processing can be difficult, but audio processing can make it simpler. in sporting videos. This technology is currently available in a product that is available in Japan. Off the Desktop technologies Speech, touch and multi-display calibrations font technologies (some are included in Flash 8), spoken queries
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p>The lab is known to have a range of time lines--37 percent long-term 47% medium, 16% short term. Although I believe that "long-term" is longer than 5 years, and "short-term" is shorter than 2 years, I am not certain.
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p>Next, Kathy Ryall who stated that she was a software professional and was paying attention to the DiamondTouch? technology.
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p>The DiamondTouch? is multi-user, multi touch, and can differentiate between users. Different fingers can be used to interact with the screen. The screen is dust-resistant which means you can put things on it or spill liquids on it. It can still function. The DiamondTouch? offers support for older devices which means that hand gestures and pokes are seen as mouse clicks. The folks at MERL (and other locations) are still developing interaction standards for the screen. Since you can make use of multi-finger gestures as well as pen-and-finger (multi device) interaction the DiamondTouch? offers more interaction than a mouse. It's a whole new user interface, especially when you consider that there are multiple users touching it at one time. It could be used to create an area for shared use where you can share documents around with hand gestures, for instance.
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p>It is an USB device that can connect and work. There are developer kits commercially available. The kits are available in C++ and C++, Java, Active X, and Java. Flash libraries are also available for rapid prototyping. DiamondSpin? is an open source Java interface to a few of the DiamondTouch? capabilities. The folks at MERL are also involved in wrapping other APIs into the DiamondTouch?.
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p>There are two sizes of DiamondTouch?--81 and 107 (I believe that those are diagonal measurements). These tables cost around $10,000, which means they're only available to large businesses and universities for a short time. MERL is working on DiamondSpace? which extends the DiamondTouch? technology to walls, laptops and more.
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p>[End of Notes[end of notes
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p>It's an intriguing technology. I'm not sure how I would make use of it as a replacement for my PC, however I could (once the cost is lower) and I could envision it as a replacement for my bulletin board. This technology is an ideal choice for applications that benefit from multi-user interaction, a larger screen (larger in terms of size, but not in resolution) like gaming and drafting. http://gamesauthority.com/members/steamoffer1/activity/7162/ </p>
p></p><h3>How green is your computer?</h3>Find out more at the electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool.
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p></p><h2>July 24 July 24, 2006</h2><h3>CalendarTag?: A simple JSP Calendar Component</h3>I looked at the HtmlCalendarBean? and the Calendar Taglib, both from ServletSuite?. I expected the cost to be reasonable, but did not expect source, which was crucial for the client. A little research on SourceForge? discovered the perfect project: CalendarTag?. The project appears to be abandoned, but the author has put things in order before putting it down for development. I would say that the project is not abandoned. Additionally, he replied to my questions (including "is this project alive?") in less than 24 hours. The documentation was extremely useful to me. Additionally, you can modify the output of the calendar to a great extent. I love the decorator. It allows you to alter the way that each day is displayed. You can implement a simple interface or extend an existing class. Make no mistake. This component displays a simple calendar in HTML. Update 3:24: There's no support for events or users. I should have read the documentation more carefully and noted that there's no built-in support for users or events. From the calendar, you have access to the request and thus can program events and/or user-specific calendars.). I would suggest a more intricate calendaring system if your need those features. Calendartag is a simple system that does it well.
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