Schematic’s giant interactive outdoor display facilitates wayfinding and social networking at the festival.

At Cannes this year, delegates will literally be the first to get their hands on a new kind of interactive out-of-home installation. The multi-touch wall from Schematic, a WPP digital company, is a 12-foot by 5-foot display that provides a visual interface for attendees to interact with the festival schedule, 3D venue maps and information on local attractions using only their hands. With the touchwall’s social networking capabilities, attendees can also set up meetings and swap contact details via email.

Multiple attendees can interact with the wall at once. To identify themselves, attendees need only to touch their festival badges to the screen—each badge is embedded with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

Check back later this week for more on user interface design and interactive marketing shop Schematic and the wall’s potential for advertisers.
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Microsoft’s top Windows business executive said Monday that for all his excitement about Windows 7, he doubts the release of the operating system will lead to a significant spike in PC sales.

“History would tell us that generally as you ship a Windows release into the market…the bump is very modest,” Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte said in a “fireside chat” at the UBS Global Technology and Services Conference. “You will see a little bit, but it is modest.”

Veghte announced last week that Microsoft plans to ship Windows 7 on Oct. 22. The company will also have a program in the coming weeks through which those who buy a new PC with Windows Vista will get a free or low-cost upgrade to Windows 7. A leaked memo from Best Buy suggests that the program will kick off at the end of this month.

On the business side, Veghte said that there is “very good enthusiasm around Windows 7,” but that will not be the biggest factor in the decision by corporations about when to upgrade their computers.

“It will get drowned by the macroeconomic environment,” he said in the speech, which was Webcast on Microsoft’s investor Web site. “As the macro environment comes back, people will have to buy new PCs. People aren’t using PCs any less.”

Veghte was pressed on whether Windows 7 will help Microsoft see improvement in the average selling price of Windows, which has taken a big hit because of the rise of Netbooks, a low-cost notebook PC variant.

“It’s pretty hard to tell,” Veghte said. “I think in this economic environment it is very hard to see us at the mix we had (during Windows XP and the beginning of Windows Vista). As we come out of the economic downturn it’s a very interesting question.”

Veghte was also asked about Microsoft’s recent cost-cutting effort and said it is something the company hasn’t done in the 19 years he’s been there. He said every expense has been questioned as to whether it is essential.

“It has been line by line,” Veghte said. “As a culture we’ve got to go through and really make the hard trade-offs. I think it’s a wonderful thing for the company, for the culture.”
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The last MacBook standing.

Apple’s lowest-end laptop occupies a special place in the Mac spectrum. As of WWDC 2009, it’s the last MacBook standing in the lineup–all the other Apple notebooks are now MacBook Pros. The MacBook (we can call it “the” MacBook, now) also is the last to retain the polycarbonate white plastic glossy casing that once defined a whole line of machines.

While the MacBook’s more pedestrian appearance may not catch the eye as much as the unibody aluminum MacBook Pros, don’t be fooled by its throwback looks–inside, Apple’s done a good job of keeping the components on par with its more expensive brothers. In fact, the white MacBook has very comparable specs to the lowest-end 13-inch MacBook Pro. Its 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo processor is close to the MacBook Pro’s standard 2.26 GHz one, and the Nvidia 9400M graphics processor is the same one that’s in the MacBook unibody 13-inchers, so the gaming and media capabilities are comparable.

Depending on your specific needs, for $999, you’re getting a real bargain with the last MacBook. You can either approach this as “for $200 more I can get a MacBook Pro,” or “I can get something nearly as good as a MacBook Pro and save $200.” The latter perspective, however, requires you to be willing to skip some of the Pro-level features.

The MacBook comes with two USB 2.0 ports, a mini-DVI port, a FireWire 400 port, and both a headphone and mic jack. The 160GB hard drive can be upgraded to a maximum of 500GB when ordering, a first for a MacBook. The polycarbonate body, as always, feels sturdy and well built, if thicker than the aluminum versions, and the pleasingly minimalist glossy plastic exterior and matte white interior might be more prone to picking up scratches and staining.
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The Asus Eee PC T91, which we fondled fondly at CES, has a few new tricks up its sleeve in the multitouch and Windows 7 department, but sadly these features won’t make it in time for launch this month.

Previously, we knew about the netbook’s touchscreen and hefty £449 ($670) price tag (for an Atom-based netbook, anyway), but the multitouch screen and Windows 7, both demoed in the video, were kind of a revelation.

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Apple has been awarded a number of new patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week. Two of the patents give Apple a firmer hold on its multitouch and touchpad surface technologies and the iPhone’s case design.

An important patent for a touchpad surface titled Force imaging input device and system covers the multitouch trackpad in Apple’s more recent notebook computers and–to some degree–the iPhone touch screen.

The abstract from the patent describes a system with multiple layers comprised of two sets of drive traces, one layer of sensing traces, and a spring membrane. The layers are arranged over a base and have an outer layer such as plastic or glass that gives the entire assembly a pleasing outward appearance and provides an interactive surface with the outside world.

(Credit: U.S. Patent Office)

The invention is credited to Steven Hotelling and Brian Huppi, and could serve as a defense for Apple against any multitouch copycat devices.

The second patent, titled Electronic device, covers the iPhone’s case design, and shows how the iPhone is constructed and where the ports are placed on the top and bottom of the phone. Additionally, the patent indicates location and placement of the speakers, switches, buttons, and camera.

(Credit: U.S. Patent Office)

The invention is credited to a long list of people. Notable celebs on the list include Apple’s lead designer, Jonathan Ive, and the company’s CEO, Steve Jobs. This patent could serve to protect the iPhone from look-a-like competitors.

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Video demo of the HP TouchSmart TX2 tablet PC running Windows 7 RC 64-bit with multi-touch features.

N-trig DuoSense™ Multi-Touch Beta Package (2.59) for Windows 7 Release Candidate

The DuoSenseTM multi-touch package for Windows 7 Release Candidate enables ISVs and developers to experience the Hands-onTM effect, and allows software applications to be developed with integral multi-touch capabilities.

In this package, more than two fingers can be used simultaneously as input devices.

This package supports Windows 7 protocol only. In Windows 7, multi-touch gesture-recognition is identified by the operating system.

If you are a developer and have DuoSense technology enabled and the Windows 7 RC (build 7100) version installed on either your Dell Latitude XT, your Latitude XT2 or your HP TouchSmart tx2, you can download and run the multi-touch package.

What is multi-touch?

Multi-touch gives the user the ability to use their hands to manipulate data and objects directly on the computer screen, enabling them to fully experience the Hands-on computingTM approach. DuoSense’s multi-touch technology provides a natural user interface, revolutionizing personal and professional computing and providing a better human interface.

Important Notes

Before downloading this package you must ensure that you read the N-trig DuoSense™ Multi-Touch Package for Windows 7 Release Candidate Release Notes for your computer.

For more information about the Dell Latitude XT, or Latitude XT2 please contact your Dell representative.

For more information about the HP TouchSmart tx2, please contact your HP representative.
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Saturday, May 09, 2009 - 11:43 AM EDT

“Apple has seeded developers with a new version of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard),” Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors.

“The build (10A354) adds one particularly interesting new feature to Apple’s Mac operating system: Chinese handwriting recognition specifically for multi-touch capable machines,” Kim reports.

“This could open the door to more novel uses for Apple’s multi-touch trackpads or even suggest a more robust full-screen multi-touch screen as has been rumored,” Kim reports.

More in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "James W." for the heads up.]

Send us links! Email: webmaster@macdailynews.com

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• The all-new 13-inch MacBook. The next generation of notebooks starts at $1299.
• The all-new 15-inch Macbook Pro. New design. New features. New technologies. From $1999.
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Even though Microsoft is no longer actively developing pptPlex, a new release of the pug-in is now available for download. The multi-touch-enabled version of pptPlex is designed to integrate seamlessly with Windows 7, the Redmond company informs, and to take advantage of the multi-touch capabilities of the operating system. This of course, provided that the next iteration of the Windows client runs on top of touch-capable
hardware. But just because a new build of pptPlex is now available for download, it does not mean that the Office Labs are bringing the project back to life. It appears that making pptPlex take advantage of the multi-touch functionality in Windows 7 is nothing more than an experiment.

“When we wanted to try out the new multi-touch capabilities of Windows 7, pptPlex seemed like a good application in which to do some experimentation. We liked the touch interaction and thought we would share this updated version of pptPlex with anybody out there who has a multi-touch enabled device running Windows 7,” revealed a member of the Office Labs.

Microsoft introduced pptPlex in mid-August 2008, based on the Plex technology. Designed as a plug-in for Office 2007 PowerPoint, pptPlex can turn presentations into zoomable canvases. As you will be able to see in the video embedded at the bottom of this article, the natural user interface of Windows 7 in combination with a pptPlex canvas is nothing short of a match made in heaven.

“If you have a multi-touch enabled device and Windows 7, you may want to download this version of pptPlex. Otherwise, we recommend using the original version. Here are the gestures enabled in the multi-touch release of pptPlex: touch to zoom in, two finger tap to zoom out, swipe left/right and flick to move to the next/previous slide; pinch and pan works as expected,” the Office Labs team representative added.
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Multi-Touch pptPlex Demo

With a two-finger swipe, the video played faster and with three fingers it played faster still. Zhao even did his Mike Fratello impression, circling one of the players in red with another swirl of his finger, much as the “telestrator czar” does on TV.

In another corner of the cramped hallway that serves as the show floor, Canada’s GestureTek showed some of its wares. On the floor is the kind of display that has become common at malls and other places, while another setup featured a driving game that can be controlled with nothing but a user’s two hands, gesturing in mid-air.

It’s intuitive, but tricky to master. One uses their hands as a steering wheel, spreading their hands out to accelerate and bringing them together to slow down.

On stage, speakers discussed both new areas for exploration as well as the key hurdles the industry still faces–issues of cost, size, and accuracy.

As far as what’s in the future, one interesting topic had to do with displays that themselves can mold or “deform” themselves in response to touch.

Such technology is not here today, but is probably not more than three to five years out, said Christophe Ramstein, chief technology officer at Immersion, a company known for its force feedback technology. Ramstein said he is talking with a lot of large companies about the potential of that area.

“It’s a big area,” Ramstein said. “They are interested.”

In his speech, Han talked about what he and his company — Perceptive Pixel — are up to these days. Although a lot of the company’s business is in the industrial and government space, Han noted that his company has become best known for the touch wall systems it has sold to broadcasters like CNN, which used them in its election coverage.

“We actually didn’t think broadcast was an area for us,” Han said. “They found us at a military trade show.”

He also showed a clip of the “Saturday Night Live” parody of the election coverage, saying it makes an important point. “It’s a really fine line for us between something that really works…and falling into a gimmick,” Han said.

And while the show is small, the 270 attendees are more than the show’s organizers had expected, leading to a shortage of dishes, but an abundance of energy.

Speakers at the conference include big names like Microsoft and multitouch pioneer Jeff Han, while the small show floor serves as a showcase for start-ups, along with those that supply the base components needed to power touch screens and other interactive displays.
The success of Nintendo’s Wii and Apple’s iPod have shown the consumer appeal of devices that respond to human touch and movement, but a quick glance around the San Jose, California Hilton showed just how young the industry is.
Ashton Kutcher shows Demi Moore something on his Apple iPhone using the touch screen.

Ashton Kutcher shows Demi Moore something on his Apple iPhone using the touch screen.

While this week’s RSA 2009 show fills the Moscone Center a little ways up north in San Francisco, California, the Interactive Displays 2009 conference barely fills a mid-size ballroom here. Its show floor more closely resembles a science fair than the glitz of a big-time trade show.

But if you used one of the interactive displays here to show a heat map of this industry, it would glow red hot. That’s because touch displays, for years relegated to kiosks and industrial uses, are quickly becoming mainstream.

Hewlett-Packard and Dell already have touch-capable machines, while Microsoft is set to make gesture input standard with Windows 7.

Among those young companies is a San Jose-based outfit called 22miles. Like many of the companies here, its core business has been one-off projects for hotel displays. But the company is also hard at work on technologies that go way beyond powering an interactive directory.

With a swipe of his finger, CEO Joey Yu Zhao pulled up a prototype interactive TV application. A video of a basketball game started playing. Zhao used a finger to pause the game and then swiped his finger to play in slow motion.
Han also took the crowd on a bit of a journey back in time, reminding folks that while the multitouch business is young, its technology roots stretch back decades.

For his own part, Han said he was inspired by seeing a PBS documentary in the early 1980s that showed Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton, then at the University of Toronto, using multitouch to compose music on a computer. The computer itself was a green screen with an ancient processor and little memory, but the key underlying concept was already there.
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