EDiT, the interactive table i’ve been engineering for InformaSistemi, has been highlighted as one of the innovations of Smau 2009.
Can we still talk about innovations when all the HCI world is turning its eyes towards the “touch”.

In my opinion: yes. Touch technologies will become mainstream in 2010/2011, and there are a lot of them, while operating systems are updating their widgets accordingly. However this does not mean that all applications we use today will be magically improved by enabling multiple touches.
My forecast is, instead, an initial frenzy in creating new apps (see the iPhone experience) where the quantity/quality ratio will also become a factor of criticism towards the real need for the multitouch applications.

Multi-touch is cool ok, but multi-user is the real change.

EDiT has been designed from the ground up with this idea in mind, so it still deserves the “innovative” adjective (IMHO of course).

We are working closely with Teddy italian fashion company in the context of the recent Terranova brand restyling.
For Terranova, the designers decided to create a new retail experience based on digital projection and interactive surfaces. The focus is always on the product, so all the “cosmetic” elements should have an orientating goal towards the merchandise, this is the rule in the retail space.
We realized for them a project using multiple digital projections with custom image warping on volumes, using two Façade systems both at the entrance (keywords: stunning, catchy, inviting) and at the very end of the shop (keywords: element of continuity, ambiance).
The interactive projection is using a TouchMyBrand system where the movements of the sales person behind the counter have a “fragmenting” effect on the digital projection behind her. So, users experience interactivity not on themselves, but on some other human being (let’s call it the “zoo” effect?).
The whole experience is well balanced, and the goal of the place is maintained.
As always the motto is: “follow the rules of nature”.  [video]

On tuesday i was invited by Frederic Kaplan at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) for a talk on Interactive Surfaces.
It has been a really interesting experience: the audience had precise questions about applications and technology. Besides the talk i had the chance to try WizKid live!
WizKid is a robot with social skills that features a novel interaction paradigm, combining robotics with a mid-air gesture interface called “halo”. Me and Frederic exchanged a lot of ideas about the project, the metaphors and the tech issues related to the “halo interface”, that in my opinion has the possibility to become widespread also in a number of other devices.
WizKid was exhibited at MoMa for three months, and it is now returning back to its swiss home (not on his own legs, at least for the moment ) to be upgraded and refined.
Thanks again to Frederic for the chance, and it was also very nice to meet again Nicolas Nova and talking about his experience as a veteran LIFT organizer.

Hello world. This one to tell i am still alive, despite the lack of blog updates. I’m here at CHI 2008 in Florence, just started attending, have a poster to present for the MICC, an Engineering SIG to facilitate and, hopefully, some interesting things to get excited about in the world of Human Computer Interaction. If this is the case (whichi i am sure of), i will keep this post updated.

Give your sketches a kinetic feel
K-Sketch is a work presented by Colwell and Landay, it’s about creating a sketching user interface that speeds up the animation process. There is a lot on sketching, and these guys tell it’s for “novice” animators. My feel of it is that it is an awesome technique that could be in a pro tool too. Maybe multitouch?

Computational Textiles
For the soft and tangible interface lovers. Lilypad Arduino is about embedding technology in dresses, but not only that. Technology doesn’t look like that, dress does look like something more. And girls become passionate in programming and start computer science courses!

Get something more serious than a Wiimote
Had an interesting talk with Stephen Hughes, who was presenting his work with the U. of Glasgow on tactile input. He is actually the engineer founding SAHM-Engineering, that provides an integrated architecture of wireless sensors packed into a small box. That is very similar to what U. of Bologna does as the hardware platform fo TANGerINE, and a good sign that these micro-architectures are growing in market demand. Side our booth there was also Pamela Jennings with her project “Constructed Narratives”.
She is using tangibles with smart sensors too, to construct blocky “things” that map to conceptual structures, using WordNet as API and other text mining. Very different use of this technology!

Media Spaces: a panel lacking the future The panel featured Buxton and other famous researchers. Very good intro about the history of media-spaces (which you could name also telepresence), and some insight about the present, but.. the future? No real answer, and a shared feeling that the market of mobile devices is driving it all. Buxton said: “more is less! (more technology, in the right place, becomes less complexity).

A taste of digital Pen & Paper
I missed some workshop in the past and still wasn’t able to use the digital pen&paper technology. Hopefully ETH Zurich booth with Beat Signer showed their iPaper suite for digital annotation (and much more), and also a poster from Jurgen Steimle about, i would say, the future of Post-It. Both use Anoto technology, and both say that Anoto (who is the only widely available provider of APIs and tech) is “holding back” too much in terms of licensing agreements, and that is one of the reasons why digital pen&paper isn’t still widely used.

In general i think mixed/augmented reality applications that inherit the virtual reality concept of googles and mix it with the absolute user tracking have drawbacks in terms of usability.
I stumbled in the Mixed Reality Interface (MRI), no more a research project but a ready-to-buy device that implements the mixed reality paradigm in a clever way, i mean:

• you don’t have to wear googles, the interface is presented on a screen (LCD in this case)
• the interaction metaphor is entirely tabletop, you manipulate tangible objects on the surface and have their digital counterparts move/rotate in the artificial scene
• i like the concept of the "point of view", or "user", object that moves the camera

MRI is "just" a device (the right choice), but in general, the shown applications are also very nice: smooth animations when an object is put on the surface or disappears, no jittering, and photorealistic rendering (this is good for anything dealing with "reality").
Techwise, it seems this device is vision-based (they say illumination changes can cause problems), no detail on the tracker identification system.
The company is Kommerz, there are a bunch of interesting videos on their site.