via engadget.com

Thanks to @mjeaton for this one. Very cool. Insert joke about touching oneself.  

WIMPs = Window, Icon, Menu, Pointer. 

Ya, We know you want one!  

We’ll announce when the artwork is approved at http://www.getuncommon.com and you can get yours.

For the past 6 months Tanagram has been working on a research grant from DARPA to develop a User Experience Model for Augmented Reality using Head Mounted Display Technology (HMD). We’ll be sharing the outcome soon, but for now here is an amazing technology we are researching as a potential ingredient.

Vitamin D is a consumer ready video recording and management system. From their website:

“Our easy-to-use software brings professional-grade video monitoring to anyone with a webcam or network camera. Know exactly what you’ve missed without scanning hours of video.”

Here is a video of Tim, Tanagram’s Senior Design Technologist, turning down the annoying audio notifications I set up for each trigger event.

Download now or watch on posterous

VID00043 – iPhone.m4v (4072 KB)

You have to play with this software. It will work with a Mac’s built-in iSight camera.

www.fullscreenweather.com

The folks here at Tanagram get very excited when we see products exploring visualizations that truly utilize the advantages of current display technologies. We’ve always adored Weatherunderground for their approach to syndicating data, but today they get a vigorous hat tip for some nicely done User Experience (UX). Sure there could be a nicer font, or better color palette, but this experience is so much of an improvement over the state of the union, we don’t really care. Thanks guys for being great. We salute you.

See it here: www.fullscreenweather.com

Tanagram is proud to announce the launch of Touch.Codeplex.com. Our exploration into the state of the Natural User Interface (NUI) connected us with folks at Microsoft and together we identified an adoption issue. While the technology to build Touch applications exists, it is currently cumbersome to implement. Marc Schweigert and James Chittenden had an idea to use Expression Behaviors (literally drag-and-drop onto any object) to act as a bridge. Together we launch this humble beginning with a bold vision. We hope you join us as we expand this library in the months to come.

Writeboard Panorama of calculation debugging.

Project Overview
The APIs in WPF4 plus the Surface Toolkit for Windows Touch make building common touch scenarios easy. However, implementing many of the same touch scenarios using WPF3.5SP1 or Silverlight 3/4 involves writing a fair bit more code. Furthermore, the touch APIs across WPF4, WPF3.5SP1, and Silverlight are different.

Project Goals
The goal of this project is to simplify building common touch scenarios when using WPF 3.5 SP1 or Silverlight 3/4 by using Expression Blend Behaviors to provide a consistent way to implement these scenarios across WPF & Silverlight. Expression Blend Behaviors can be used within Visual Studio without a dependency on Expression Blend by downloading the Expression Blend 3 SDK. You can also find more Expression Blend Behaviors at http://expressionblend.codeplex.com/ and http://tinyurl.com/ExpressionGalleryBehaviors.

Project Roadmap

• Beta Release of core Scroll and TranslateRotateScale behaviors to developer community. <– You are here
• Revised Scroll and TranslateRotateScale behaviors
• Gesture Behavior (repurpose awesome code from here)
  • Erase (Back and Forth Gesture)
  • Create (Single Finger Draw ‘+’)
  • Delete (Single Finger ‘X’ Drawn Over Target)
  • Select Lasso (Single Finger Draw Lasso)
  • Split (Single Finger Diagonal Line)
• Hold Menu (Single Finger Touch & Hold Context Menu)
• Draw (Three Finger Pen Grasp)
• Clone (Two Finger Double Tap)
• Open / Edit (Single Finger Double Tap)
• Select (Single Finger Tap)
• Global Rotate (Five Finger Grab and Rotate of Application)
• Global Perspective Rotate (Five Finger Pressure to Rotate Application Perspective)

See the whole deal here. 

We seem to talk a lot about Nike and Nike+. Maybe it’s the tanagramster team’s passion for running or Nike’s well rounded approach to digital ecology. It doesn’t really matter because we, the consumer, want more. The following list is a summary of features we’d like to see on the iPhone 3GS version.

1) Emergency response – As an urban runner, on of my biggest fears is an attack or accident that renders me unable to seek help. I would feel better if I had an option to alert loved ones or authorities with a simple button press or even better, after an accelerometer detected shock followed by no movement (accelerometer or sensor). Perhaps we could use MobileMe Find-my-phone or the GPS to send coordinates to those who need to know? Even a quick access link to a speakerphone dialed 911 call would be appreciated. Obviously there are risks with auto dialing emergency services, but I think safety catches could be engineered into the solution. I wonder if Nike could partner with these guys?

2) Notes Transcription – This one is a little quirky, but I do some of my best thinking during a run and would greatly appreciate a capture device more secure than my memory. Mic-in-headphones technology would likely be required for this, but we’ve got that. Speech-to-text tech would make this better, but I’m not holding on to his idea because I’m pretty sure the noise of the run would confuse the system pretty quickly.

3) Telemetrics – I have no doubt the folks at Motorola want or have something like this, but us pro-sumers would love live run streams for loved ones and trainers as we slog through our local runs. Consider the opportunity for coaches to monitor multiple runners’ performance against individual profiles. It’s an easy connection to make for team efforts, but what about sports consultants coaching paying individuals through a Marathon.

4) VOIP Push-To-Talk (PTT) – Technology similar to Skype (not the PTT part) would allow a coach or teammate to provide real-time insights / conversation regardless of distance.

5) 3rd Party Integration – In a world where services are currency, Nike has still not embraced allowing third-party developers (hardware or software) to add their personal twists to the plus ecology. If they offered a SDK, the market could take their hardware and grow it into all sorts of interesting spaces. Perhaps their lacking revenue model is to blame?

5) Playlist Sync OR Local Area Music Broadcast – It’s nice to run with friends, it’s extra nice to run to the same music (same tempo). The ability to sync music or share music via bluetooth or wifi would be awesome. I could use the same tech on the ski slope. Extra credit for developing a networking architecture that expands distance as the number of paired machines increases.

6) GPS Integration – This one is a no brainer. The Nike+ system needs to be manually calibrated (i.e. you type in a distance after a run). Instead we think it would be great to intermittently start the GPS chip (every 1 min to save battery) to determine actual progress. Not only would this data be useful for calibration but it would also be nice to automagically draw routes. Clever web services monkeys might even be able to create a function that alerts you if you are approaching another Nike+ user and allow you to contact them, race them, etc.

7) Digital (virtual) Running Mates – Illness kept me from running the last Human Race, but there is another opportunity for Nike+ to network their communities. Imagine as you are beginning your run, your Nike+ app speaks into your ears that there are X number of runners of similar skill starting at the same time. After being presented the option, you opt to join the group and during your run you can chat with them via VOIP technology. Imagine those runners are scattered across the world. WOW! “Hi, what’s your name?” “I’m Roy from Manchester, and you?” You get it…

I hope the fine folks at Nike don’t consider these ideas as criticisms. More than half of our office is wired into their service and we adore their smart combination of style and tech. As fans for life we just want to help. See you all at the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle!

New York Times - A Peek into Netflix Queues

Data superimposed onto geography gains the benefit enhanced meaning. Humans understand maps as spacial surrogates and because of that it is easy for us to compare data in a physical realm. The team at NYTimes.com has done a great job making Netflix rental data relevant and interesting. It’s beautiful.