pocode is a new open-source C++ library designed by Potion for the production of interactive media across multiple platforms. The frameworks provides a robust, high-performance software infrastructure that allows for the creation of all types of software, from simple visual sketches to elegant mobile apps to entire software applications.

Continue reading.... Pocode – New open-source C++ library by Potion [c++]

BERG today released details of their concept “printer”, one that together with the “Berg Cloud” service behaves like a physical hub to your digital content. They describe it as:

BERG Cloud is our technology to move the smarts of products onto the internet. We think of it as the nervous system for connected products. Built to run at scale, BERG Cloud could as easily operate the Web-enabled signage of a city block, as the playful home electronics of the future. Little Printer is the first of our family of connected products for the home.

..and in particular the “Little Printer”:

Little Printer holds a compact, inkless, thermal printer. Its zero-configuration wireless connection to the Web (via the Bridge unit, included) lets you place it wherever you have a power outlet. Little Printer is constructed in high-gloss injected moulded plastic and the brushed steel faceplate holds the paper, framing each delivery as it prints. Little Printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper. 

See video below.

Continue reading.... Little Printer [Objects]

Our dear friends at beyond tellerrand have just given us a tip that there is only 2 weeks left to grab a Early Bird ticket to their fantastic 3-day event in Düsseldorf. The event includes intensive workshops and 15 high quality talks for web enthusiasts. Day one day features 3 full-day workshops with Simon Collison, Seb Lee-Delisle and Jeremy Keith. Day two and three covers 15 talks in a single track plus Q&A where you have the chance to chat with and as questions to all the speakers.

Pricing starts at €125,00 including German VAT (19%) and booking fees!

Dates for beyond tellerrand 2011 are November 20-22, 2011. Düsseldorf, Germany.

Book now!

Karl D.D. Willis, Ivan Poupyrev, Scott E. Hudson and Moshe Mahler have just released details of their latest project at Disney Research, a novel interactive system that allows multiple people to play and work together using a custom handheld device. The device combines handheld projector, IR camera and a ranging sensor. The project is a step forward from MotionBeam, first project by members of the team developed with Disney and  Computational Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon University.

The system is immediate and simple: users simply project onto a surface and their projection becomes aware and responsive to other projections nearby. Interaction can range from projector-based games, such as boxing with projected characters, to everyday tasks such as exchanging contact information by ‘dragging and dropping’ onto another user’s projection.

The system consists of a hybrid mobile projector that outputs both visible and invisible projections at the same time. The invisible projection contains tracking data that can be recognised by the device camera, allowing accurate location tracking of multiple projections and lightweight communication between devices. The games range from boxing match to task management and file exchange. See video for details.

Continue reading.... SideBySide [c++, Mobile, Mac, Games]

Created by Teehan+Lax Labs, Touch Vision Interface is a combination of software and hardware to allow realtime manipulation of content on a remote device via touch interface on a mobile device. Instead of purely using mobile device screen as an input, the user views the remote content and applies the content simultaneously, better know but not necessarily a form of AR.

I can still recall the first time I saw an Augmented Reality demo. There was a sense of wonderment from the illusion of 3D models living within the video feed. Of course, the real magic was the fact that the application was not only viewing its surrounding environment, but also understanding it. AR has proven to be an incredible tool for enhancing perception of the real world. Despite this, I’ve always felt that the technology was somewhat limited in its application. It is typically implemented as output in the form of visual overlays or filters. But could it also be used for user input? We decided to explore that question by pairing the principles of AR (like real-time marker detection and tracking) with a natural user interface (specifically, touch on a mobile phone) to create an entirely new interactive experience.

Continue reading.... Touch Vision Interface [openFrameworks, Arduino, Android]

While experiments with iDevice and Android app development are ubiquitous, design publisher dpr-barcelona’s recent efforts with their Architecture in your Hand initiative are undoubtedly worth highlighting. A scheme hatched to rethink the speed and engagement associated with traditional publishing, Architecture in your Hand proposes a line of ‘mobile books’ that is both post-monograph and post-blog. RSS feeds track the activities of embedded writers, sites of interest are geolocated and annotated – these streams of content help expand the paramaters of a ‘static’ design publication and provide contrast and counterpoint to more standard content such as critical essays and photo-documentation of completed projects. dpr-barcelona editors César Reyes Nájera and Ethel Baraona Pohl describe the project as follows: “Considering that the main goal of a book is to store and transmit information added to the potential of networked learning, we have imagined that this concept can be expanded and spread. As being transmitted through a new basis, this information should be structured following a different mobile logic: enhancing immediacy, brevity, and simplicity. When atomizing the contents, we are sharing capsules of knowledge for the user to learn, share and interact with the city.”

Continue reading.... Architecture in your Hand [iPhone, Android]

Super Pikix is a free VJ software for the portable console Caanoo created by Piklipita, duo of visual artists based in London, UK & Wroclaw, Poland. The Caanoo is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and media player (wikipedia) priced at about US $150.

The Caanoo device fits into your pocket, it includes a touch screen, powered by a rechargeable battery and in addition to SD card storage it also includes a composite video out (PAL and NTSC supported). The Super Pikix software supports two video layers to be blended together, allows you to save and load playlists, special effects and filters and has a video resolution output of 320×240 pixels.

Piklipita is also the author of VJ-tools for Playstation 2, Nintendo GBA and soon to come PIKI900, VJ Software for Nokia N900. When it comes to the iOS platform, Piklipita have collaborated with Lingouf to create kovoclak and runkovo.

Also below are attached some of Piklipita‘s VJ performances.

[found via digitaltools]

Latest from the Teague Labs comes in the form of Computerless Arduino, small, inexpensive visual interface for Arduino that doesn’t require a computer to change the code, so you can take it with you and make awesome things anywhere.

It consists of two major components; an Arduino-compatible microcontroller loaded with a realtime code interpreter, and a stand-alone 5 button LCD display to display port values and manipulate code. The display can be connected to the Arduino via a 4-pin port at any time to peek at In/Out values, view the current code, and make changes as desired.

The team writes:
By keeping the display separate, it’s possible to have many dedicated Arduino modules (we’re using one of the smallest, cheapest, and most-capable Arduino clones, the Teensy2.0for $18), without needing to spend much on each additional device. For the display we’re using the super small uLCD-144 (by 4D Systems for $29), and the system could easily be modified to use a larger display or computer if desired. The programming instruction set for the Computerless Arduino is quite small, making it easy for novices to get started while still working with real code. Navigating the user interface is a bit tedious on such a tiny display, but it’s easy to learn and provides everything you need — a basic multichannel signal scope, a code page for the setup() function which runs once at startup, and 8 pages of code for the loop() function which provides the main functionality and runs over-and-over forever.

Check out the code and try it yourself at labs.teague.com

(Thanks Emilio)

The inPulse was originally a BlackBerry peripheral, but now, it’s a fully programmable device Bluetooth wrist computer. It’s manufacturer Allerta released an SDK few week back, which lets the 52Mhz ARM7 processor and 8Kb of RAM within display whatever you’d like on the 1.3-inch, 96 x 128 pixel screen, yours for $149.

inPulse can connect wirelessly to all kinds of host devices: computers, laptops, and smartphones. It plays best with Android, Blackberry, Mac, Windows and Linux. It’s a two way connection, so inPulse can send packets back to the host based on user interaction. The team has created a number of sample apps to get your started, including source code, tutorials and binaries to load on your watch including a simulator.

The watch-side code is written in C, calling high level graphics, communication, and device APIs. The PC-side examples are written in Python. The sample Android and Blackberry apps are written in Java.

You can load a standard firmware image on your watch and use it purely as an alerting device.  It can be used out of the box by Blackberry users and Android users.  Get started with the Blackberry Quickstart or the Android guide. It appears that when it comes to iOS, the team has implemented some examples in the SDK although the problem lies with not being able to do *real* background apps like it is possible on Blackberry and Android. Of course, jailbroken iPhone is a another story.

More at getinpulse.com

/via engadget

Yesterday I made my way down to see what’s happening at the V&A for their Digital Design Weekend. Besides what is becoming a regular openFrameworks workshop at the V&A this time held by  hellicar & lewis there were also a number of exibits on show. One of these was, what I can only refer to as, “Birds” by Neil Mendoza, whom I’ve previously met at London’s oF meetup aka knitting circle, and Anthony Goh.

The piece consists of four mobile phones, hacked to represent birds, mounted on tree branches with a peculiar behaviour to them. Each “bird” is a hacked Nokia phone, of an older generation, equipped with tiny arduinos and designed to respond to phonecalls by flapping their wings or moving their head around. Additionally, every time on of these birds receives a call, which by the way is never answered (they are a non sociable sort), it goes on to dial other birds which consequently respond with their own behaviour. Eventually the calls reduce awaiting one of the exhibition visitors to make the call. Each bird has a little name underneath it, in this instance a phone number which you can dial anytime. Even more interestingly, 1 of the four birds is on Virgin network while other three on Vodaphone. Apparently, the first does not like to pick up calls (moody) and not as reliable (friendly) as others.

There is no documentation on the project just yet but you can see many other interesting projects by Neil on this website.

+ Follow Neil on Twitter.

It was also great to catch up with Joel and Marek and check out that they’ve been up to at the oF workshop. More details on this once they become available.