Sunil's Blog

After polling the class, I’ve come to recognize a lot of the obstacles that arise in developing a mobile applications. A majority of the class don’t have Flash Lite capable mobile devices, and the few that do don’t use flash lite applications because data plans are too expensive.

If we tech geeks aren’t using these applications, what are the chances of the general population adopting them? I guess that’s the challenge we as developers must face, if Flash Lite applications are to EVER become popular.

James Eberhardt the Technical Director of “Insert Company Name Here,” came to speak to the IMM class about developing applications for a mobile platform. He demonstrated a few mobile applications (Flickr Upload, QR Codes) using a wifi enabled cell phone.

He’s done work for “The Border” television series on the CBC, which uses QR codes as part of a mobile scavenger hunt – theborder.ca .

QR codes – save time typing; seen on tourist locations, wine bottles, ads http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code.

There are some major obstacles for creating mobile content.

• In Canada to download 1 megabyte of data outside of a data plan costs $20. An average mp3 download would cost $80! The CRTC has recently opened up a new spectrum of radio waves that will allow for new carriers to enter the market http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/12/24/tech-yearahead.html?ref=rss . More companies would allow for competitive pricing. Another option for developer’s is to create content that is “on deck” with carrier. “On deck” content is treated separately from regular data, and billed at a discounted rate.
• Flash Lite – doesn’t support AS3!! Only As2. This is a major gotcha for me, because in IMM we’ve being programming all our projects in AS3. If Flash Lite 3 (recently released) isnt’ capable of AS3, it would be a couple years before hardware and software for phones catches up. James showed us an example of the Flash Lite 3 that supports alpha tweens and transformed video.
• GPRS not available on Flash Lite.
• 100′s of different devices with varying interfaces

In order to bring GPS-like capabilities to non-GPS type phones, there is WPS – Wi-Fi Positioning System from Skyhook Wireless. WPS uses terrestrial based Wi-Fi access points to determine location. The iPhone uses this network to triangulate 20 meter position accuracy, in conjuction with cellular network towers.

http://www.skyhookwireless.com

Murmer is a project that allows users to retrieve oral historical accounts about specific geographic locations from their cell phones.

http://murmurtoronto.ca

Today our class went on a field trip to visit GestureTek Technology, located downtown Toronto.

Vincent John Vincent started GestureTek, to support performance art involving virtual instruments. The early iterations of their technology employed an Amiga with 16 colours, laser disks that contained background video and multiple video formats and cables.

GestPoint allows human interaction with electronic devices and machines by allowing intuitive, eyes free interaction with computers and machines using hand gestures.

Their current technology is used in museums, science centres, sports and education. One of the pros of a no-touch interface is that it is less likely to break, because of lack of moving parts.

Some of the exhibits we saw:

Holopoint involves two cameras forming a video matrix. It is a portable system, and is able to accommodate large screens.

Japanese game show where actors are immersed within a virtual environment.

Interactive Table:

This table houses internal cameras beneath the glass. Similar to Microsoft Surface, the table we saw has multi-touch capability and allows up to six users to manipulate virtual objects.

IR Floors:

These floors react to anything that is different from the original animation. A particle engine drives particle interaction, and different applications are run at a time in intervals. Flash games have limitations with respect to particles.

Mobile Devices:

Katamari Damacy Mobile is a video game for the DoCoMo’s 904i series of mobile phones by Mitsubishi developed by Namco Bandai. It is a spin-off of the Katamari Damacy series, the second game on a portable system and the third game produced without the involvement of series creator Keita Takahashi.

This version of the game uses a unique method of control, by making use of a new software technology called GestureTek EyeMobile to make phones capable of detecting tilt and vibration via the built in camera. The player will be able to move the katamari ball forward, backwards, left and right by merely tilting the phone.

Nintendo’s Wii videogames to treat patients who have movement and balance problems. Occupational therapists are guiding patients through golf swings, tennis serves and baseball strikes to help them not only gain lost movement, but to teach their brains to respond quickly to fly balls or swinging fists.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/05/11/wii-therapy.html

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=5ff7f35b-e86b-4264-b3e6-19f6b5075928&k=63173

$2 multitouch – A simple multitouch pad made from a plastic bag, some dyed water, and a camera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNh31q61gc

Microsoft Surface prototyping began in 2001. Allows multiple people to work on a project without using a mouse or keyboard. The future the form factor of this computer can be part of a countertop, wall or refrigerator.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

Touch screen technology is not perfect. One problem that arises is that as you put your fingers on a device you obscure the screen. One company is suggesting that using a device that using a touch interface behind the device allows for more accurate performance without obscuring the screen.

LucidTouch – a see-through mobile device:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aASuL7RHJHM

PlayStation3 – Eye of Judgment

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ps3/eye-of-judgment-online-impressions-302228.php

Playing Knockout on the PlayStation2 with EyeToy:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6829556

Today we visited the Visualization Design Institute at Sheridan College. The lab’s primary focus is computer visualization and simulation. They have implemented this technology in scientific, medical, engineering, educational, cultural and environmental research.

Song Ho Ahn demonstrated the Facial Animation Communication Engine F.A.C.E. Using this software, one is able to use video input of human faces to control motion and facial expressions of 3D human models. During our demonstration the 3D model was able to track our human subject’s general movements quite well.

One practical application of using human faces to control facial animation, is reducing the need to produce hundreds of different 3-D shapes and allowing animators to work with an optimal number of control points. Being able to work with less markers allows for reduced setup and cleanup time.

Avid subsidiary SoftImage announced a breakthrough similar to F.A.C.E. in 2005, and allowing animators to create faces by using key frame animation or motion capture, watching a live actor’s face.

One challenge for real-time facial animation, is that as we make our 3-D models more realistic we are less forgiving of imperfections in modeling and animation. This is because we are use to reading subtle facial characteristics in our everyday life.

Facial Animation: Past, Present and Future.

The Immersion Theatre is a multi-screen theatre, where the users can “control” story direction and character outcomes with wireless tablets. Unfortunately there was a problem with one of the screens being out of synch, and the film seemed dated. Also the choices we made using the tablets, didn’t seem to correlate with what was happening on the movie screen. Despite the technical difficulties, the concept of using branching video is and audience involvement is an interesting twist on tradition linear video.

A more compelling example of immersive video is the VirtuSphere, which is “full body immersion Virtual Reality.” Inside the VirtuSphere, the virtual explorer can physically navigate the virtual world with genuine human movement, – the headset is wireless, and senses 360 degree movement, but unlike any existing virtual reality or gaming peripheral, the floor moves and each virtual step is accompanied by a real one of the same dimensions.

Here is an example video of this technology in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTnnJR-hS7k