Multi-touch technology is rapidly growing in many different research centres where new features and applications are continuously developed. This technology enables users to interact with applications by means of touch gestures and to handle digital objects by reproducing similar behaviours as if they were real. Today many commercial products (e.g. smartphones, tablet-pc, desktop monitors, etc.) use multi-touch interfaces, and the enhancement of this interaction paradigms is a central topic of the research efforts of big companies like Apple Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Samsung, Asus, Hewlett–Packard, etc. (Gianluigi Ciocca et al, 2012)
In their journal article, ‘Browsing museum image collections on a multi-touch table’, Gianluigi et al suggest a table design system which is intended to be deployed in cultural exhibitions. Also, they consider it important that it should be designed to attract people’s attention and be usable in a potentially engaging way. The user interface should enable different users to explore the database at the same time, enabling individual or collaborative usage.
In 2012, The Samsung SUR40 with Microsoft PixelSense introduced multi-touch table surface that enables experiences with digital content. The manufacturers say the SUR40 sees and responds to touch and real world objects—supporting more than 50 simultaneous inputs. It also introduced Microsoft Surface 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) to allow users to build applications for the PixelSense surface. Applications for the Microsoft PixelSense are built using the Microsoft Surface 2.0 SDK, and are ideal for any scenario in which users need to interact together on a single device. The focus of these applications is on creating real connections—whether it’s connecting customers with information and each other, or connecting the device to other devices. ( Microsoft, 2012)
The interaction with virtual/displayed images in Microsoft PixelSense is similar to what Gianluigi et al mentioned in his journal and :
“In this work we present a multi-touch tabletop system to be used in the context of museums or art gallery exhibitions for the browsing of image databases by combining an innovative image browsing paradigm and image retrieval functionalities. Images can be browsed freely by category or by interactively created clusters of similar images. The interaction with the displayed images is achieved by directly touching the screen surface or through the use of physical objects that are automatically recognized and classified by their shape. The use of tangible objects for image browsing was first exploited in the Photohelix system where pictures are spatially organized around a tangible object; users can browse the collection by rotating the object. In Photohelix, a mechanism for manually organizing a set of pictures is also supported. Here we exploit tangible objects not only as a means to (passively) browse pictures, but also as an instrument to (actively) organize data via a semi automatic clustering mechanism coupled with a new visualization paradigm. The system exploits a ‘‘magnet’’ metaphor where similar images (from the visual content point of view) are attracted to a target one, while dissimilar images are repulsed. Our browsing application provides an overview of the image collection for the user and allows for intuitive navigation throughout the image database. The user’s cognitive system will play an active role during image browsing. This is an important feature to be exploited in an application aimed at attracting people’s attention, and at promoting casual information exploration.”
The mentioned interaction by use of a tangible object can be exploited in interesting ways. Red Bull in 2011 incorporating this technology came up with an innovating idea for enhanced user experience in various bars and clubs where Red Bull is distributed. ‘When guests place their tagged Red Bull cans on the display, video content of Red Bull events and current news is shown on the display and can be saved for viewing later by snapping a photo of a QR tag with a smartphone.’ (PRNewswire-Asia, 2011)
In 2012, Tesseras in her published article ‘The role of a publisher now goes way beyond simply telling the news’ wrote about the sneak peek she was allowed in Telegraph’s experimental room with Microsoft Pixelsense. She stated, “Great content and thought provoking journalism are, of course, the backbone of any quality publication, but it’s the way in which this content is delivered that is starting to get really exciting.” (Tesseras, 2012)
Future Possibilities:
An important focus for future possibilities would include publishing of images and visual content using multi-touch table-top technology. A major focus being how individual artists, photographer or literary organizations can make use of this new publishing platform.
Users today are already accustomed to using surface touch interfaces on their mobiles and ipods. Even though they provide for image viewing options like rotation of images, zoom-in and zoom-out for better viewing options, photographer portfolios or work is still best seen in exhibitions on large displays. Making use of Microsoft Pixelsense screen would mean having large displays on digital tabletop surface where one can easily flip through one image to the other without the need to zoom in/out or change the image orientation.
As the technology allows, photographers can store their coffee table book images on a usb drive which can be distributed and advertised for in local cafes and restaurants. As mentioned on Microsoft Pixelsense blog, content ownership can be maintained by marking them as ‘read-file only’. The blog explains this in detail by use of the Photos App designed through Microsoft Surface 2.0 Software Development Kit (SDK) as follows:
The Photos App has the ability to display photos from an external USB storage device. All you have to do is create a directory on the USB drive called \PhotosApp\Content\ and put your photos in there. Launch the Photos Apps and insert the removable USB drive into your Samsung SUR40. The photos will replace the existing contents of the Photos Apps directory and will persist until another removable USB device with new content is inserted and copied over. If you want to disable the ability to copy photos from removable media change the content in the application directory on the hard drive \PhotosApp\Content\ to read-only. This will prevent the file system from overwriting the original files with new pictures and effectively block users from sharing their photos on the device. (James Maki, 2012)
It can further allow for interactive options like feedback for the artist, rating and tagging of favourite images. Another such application which helps in creating and sharing visual content through Microsoft Pixelsense is Touch Lima (also mentioned in the blog):
Lima focuses on capturing the attention of those walking by and enabling immediately intuitive and fluid experience. It features a screensaver for when it’s not in use. The app lets you easily load content via Dropbox, USB flash drive, local network or hard drive. The app features a fully 360* user interface for horizontal usage, enabling people to approach and use it from all size; and can be locked to 180* design for vertical deployments. Even more impressive, you can easily flick content to an external monitor and still control it from the primary touchscreen.
The application can read most common file image and video formats including: PDF, SVG, VCF, PowerPoint,Word, and Excel (if Microsoft Office is installed). It even optimizes high resolution photos using mip-mapping for greater speed and performance. Once your content is imported you can even ink and annotate directly on them. The application is a perfect fit as a self-service multitouch kiosk at a museum where the content is managed through Dropbox (which several colleagues can share the content folder). (James Maki, 2012)
References:
1.) Gianluigi Ciocca, Paolo Olivo, Raimondo Schettini . (2012). Browsing museum image collections on a multi-touch table. Information Systems. 37 (2), 169–182.
2.) Microsoft. (2012). About Microsoft Pixel Sense. Available: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/pixelsense/Press.aspx. Last accessed 9th May 2014.)
3.) (PRNewswire-Asia. (2011). Microsoft and Samsung Unveil the Next Generation of Surface. Available: http://en.prnasia.com/pr/2011/01/06/110016911.shtml. Last accessed 6th May 2014.)
4.) Tesseras, Lucy. (2012). Tesseras on media: Now is the time to innovate.Available: https://econsultancy.com/nma-archive/58505-tesseras-on-media-now-is-the-time-to-innovate. Last accessed 4th May 2014.
5.) Tesseras, Lucy. (July 2012). First impressions: The Telegraph Experience Room. New Media Age (Online Edition). 78319495, p2.
6.) Balasubramanian S. (21 October 2013). Exceeding Expectations.Available: http://www.dqindia.com/dataquest/feature/198733/exceeding-expectations/page/1?WT.rss_f=home%3Dexceeding+expectations. Last accessed 9th May 2014.
7.) Marty, P. F., Sayre, S., & Filippini Fantoni, S. (2011). Personal digital collections: Involving users in the co-creation of digital cultural heritage. In G. Styliaras, D. Koukopoulos, & F. Lazarinis (Eds.), Handbook of research on technologies and cultural heritage: Applications and environments (pp. 285–304). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
8.) Marty, P.F (July 2011). My lost museum: User expectations and motivations for creating personal digital collections on museum websites.Library & Information Science Research. 33 (3), 211-219.
9.) James Maki. (2012). Garage: Photos App sample and controls. Available: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/pixelsense/archive/2012/06/13/photosapp.aspx. Last accessed 8th May 2014.
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