This video shows "surface" being used with an application called
photosynth - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129 (7mins)
What it also shows is a semantically rich, user-centric experience with
at least the potential to explode open digital collections, all driven
by global community metadata. Timely, as I attended the SCONUL
conference today in the UK, where Joan Lippincott (CNI) talked on
next-gen users. She provided wonderful examples of the work stateside
libraries are doing to meet the demand for a more graphical experience
to their users when engaging with their digitised collections.
Even though this video shows tech that is "several years away", even
though it may never "make it", I personally found this breath-taking and
relevant. Though I've yet to digest the ideas and implications, it's
worth some consideration
Ian Corns
Business Analyst, Platform Applications, Talis
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Find out more on the Platform Application team's current project, Talis
Engage:
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-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Stephens Owen
Sent: 31 May 2007 17:17
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] A Next Generation Tool for Libraries.
Overall, I thought the 'surface' demo videos looked very cool. However -
I also took them with a pinch of salt - I can buy the idea that you
could put a camera on it, and your photos would automatically download
from the camera to the surface. What I didn't buy was that it happened
in milliseconds - even over a fast wired connection it takes longer than
this!
But - to contribute to the more positive comments and possible library
applications, one part I liked was the two phones being placed on the
surface, and various bits of information appears.
So - how about a surface on which you place a book. The details of the
book come up next to it, and lead to search links (other books by this
author, people who read this also liked...) etc.
A nice way of combining the physicality of the book with a way of a
jump-off point for searching. This is stuff we could do with our current
systems/data, so it isn't future gazing - the difficult bit would be
getting the Surface to recognise what book was on it - but could be done
by RFID, so also technically very possible.
Secondly, how about representing books/journals on the surface with
cover images - and then allowing the user to open them, and browse
through. You could sort through books and magnify/reduce as demonstrated
by the photo functions in the demo videos. You could browse virtual
shelves, collect a 'Surface full' of books, sort through them and then
push the ones you want to borrow somewhere - perhaps to an e-book reader
(a la the music player demo) (if they are fully digital), perhaps to a
printer (for journal articles), perhaps to a request process (ILL or
shelf retrieval). Doing this in a library would be great - doing it from
home would be even better (if I start saving now).
I think the point of 'Surface' is not that it might replace your desktop
PC (I've no idea, but seems slightly unlikely for various reasons
mentioned by others), but that for certain tasks, the ability to shuffle
stuff about, sort through it, and 'push' somewhere is going to be
useful. For example, I think doing layouts for newspapers/newsletters
would be incredibly intuitive on this type of device. I'm less convinced
I'd do any serious typing on it - although if people can adapt to doing
email on a blackberry, as far as I'm concerned anything is possible ;)
I'm sure there would be issues (having used a Wii for the first time
last night I can say that it is unexpectedly physical - and it takes
some time to realise that you don't have to be quite as vigorous with
the controller as you would have to be playing golf/baseball/tennis in
real life!) - but we can dream of a future where computers actually work
as they are meant to can't we?
Owen
------------------------------
I've been surprised at the direction for discussion on this topic, so
I'm going to "try" to turn the boat a bit...
Firstly, this is a VERY new technology - it could be a fad, it could be
second nature to us all in 10 years time and we'll be laughing about the
good old days we all used things called a "mouse". We're at the start of
the adoption curve
(http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~fmb/articles/lifecycle/), and this
could spiral into the chasm quite easily.
Secondly, even though this specific interaction metaphor may not be what
happens in the future, the generic metaphor is starting to gain hold. I
wonder how many on this list have used a Nintendo Wii, or how many will
in the next year? The method of interaction with the virtual is
extending more into our physical world, or being removed altogether.
Thirdly, the fact that we have a forum of "librarians" who have picked
up on this has got to be a positive for our future. And a list is for
discussion so...
THE QUESTION: If this technology did take hold, how would it change the
way our users interacted with our catalogues? What new services could
emerge? How could our catalogue interact with the devices our users
carry?
PS: For those interested, a colleague regularly blogs on this strand of
interaction design (amongst 1001 other things). This one is useful in
drawing together some history/links -
http://www.dynamicorange.com/blog/archives/interaction-design/more_touch
_ui_v.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Maurice York
Sent: 30 May 2007 19:35
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] A Next Generation Tool for Libraries.
Some more low-down from PC World:
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/004507.html
Try way upwards of $3000 to start. According to the above, this thing is
so expensive they are rolling it out with big corporate partners only.
Plans for home use "in the future"...
I've gotta say, Han's looks more exciting to me. His demo is flaired
towards the artistic and creative use of the interface, where
Microsoft's, while cool, is predictably limited by being born into
business applications (the first models will be used to sell phones and
play casino games???).
-Maurice
On 5/30/07, Andrews, Mark J. <MarkAndrews_at_creighton.edu> wrote:
> Problems with Surface include:
>
> * A very expensive table - how much, $3,000 to start?
>
> * Spill safe? Is this like the rust-proofing on a new car?
>
> * I have a 4-year old. What happens when he takes non-erasable
> Sharpie to my new Surface table?
>
> * Drivers? Yeah, right, it'll work right out of the box....
>
> * I once had an landlady with a cat named Ollie. One of Ollie's
> many talents was changing cable channels by rolling on the cable box.
> Why is a cat on the cable box? Because it's warm. How warm is my
> $3,000 Surface table? Will it be able to recognize and ignore leaping
> pets and unruly children?
>
> * So, is it just a big input device? Will it replace my scanner?
> What will it be used for in junior high school - will some idiot kid
> try to scan their body parts and mail it to friends?
>
> * Interoperability - with my iPod (sorry, Zune - this is Microsoft
> we're talking about), with my Mac, with my television, Tivo and 5.1
> system?
>
> * Security - will it need a Faraday Cage to product me from
> electronic snooping? Is that built-in or at an extra cost? Maybe
> someone can weld one for me at Burning Man.
>
> Just a few thoughts....
>
> Mark Andrews
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Bernd T. Wunsch
> Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 3:04 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] A Next Generation Tool for Libraries.
>
> Hi, Microsoft just launched it's new "Surface" Technology. It's
> basically Jeff Han's Multi-Touch research put into Action.
>
> This platform has the nice capability of "scanning" the items you put
> onto the surface, and creating interactions with them, by beeing a
> super high-tech touchscreen as well. This of course means that in a
> few years time, we better have these things all over our libraries, so
> people can interact with our book catalogs just by putting a book they
> like (or don't like) on to a surface, and then browse on from there.
> (Like the Microsoft video's do with phones).
>
> As Karen Coyle put's it: "librarians today are not using the best tool
> for the job." I would like to add that we need to get technology (new
> tools) INTO our library, and not just focus on how we get all of our
> library Material crammed into computers. When we guide people to
> finding books, we simply point to a computer in the library, and tell
> them to use the SAME tool as they could have done from home. This
> definitely doesn't add to the Library Coolness Factor. Next time our
> patrons visit our library, we should better have some kind of
> "wow-factor" which they couldn't get at home.
>
>
> Jeff Han's original: (youtube video's are out there too).
> http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/
>
> The new Microsoft Thing (with flash9 video goodness)
> http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
>
> - Bernd.
>
--
************************************
Maurice York
Associate Head, Information Technology
NCSU Libraries
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695
maurice_york_at_ncsu.edu
Phone: 919-515-3518
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Received on Fri Jun 22 2007 - 11:28:54 EDT