Leap Motion – which is basically Kinect on steroids – is a tiny sensor that lets you control your Windows, Mac, or Linux PC with precise mid-air gestures. The company wants to launch with as much great software support as possible, and Google Earth is a big feather in that cap. With version 7.1 for desktops (available now) you can now use Leap to zoom through big cities, rustic boroughs, and Arctic tundra like you’re Obi Wan Kenobi.
It allows you to switch between front and rear cameras while recording and snap photos while recording. For those looking for a professional level of control, Video Camera also lets you manually control exposure, focus, and white balance via a triple tap. The recent update also grants the permission to record up to 8 remote cameras.
A portal dedicated to casual game design from User Interface
,Controls,Innovation,Style,Testing,Target Audience, Gameplay,Design Process, Learning curve,Interviews.
Lot of dicussions in there even with feedbacks from user playing on updated games and what is good and bads about the game.
When students were given their own iPad, they were given full autonomy of their device and had to set it up from scratch. They set up all of their own accounts and installed their own apps, from a combination of required apps to those which they chose themselves. Each student was given a $40 iTunes gift card to use for their purchases. Experience showed that true success relied on moving away from the school being the "boss" of the machine to one where it was student driven and student managed.
It was found that the Ipads are very different from laptops in that students can really relate to them and, when used, they do not become the focus of the learning. Instead they become one device which can be used with all learning tools that students have access to. The iPad became the "red pen" where much of the work got done in other ways and the iPad was used when needed. Laptop computers control thinking and control the desk. When used, they become the focus of the learning. iPads are a technology which has really changed the way students work with computers in the classroom. The real challenge for staff is to embrace this and to understand that you can't expect to have iPads in the classroom and teach the same way that you did when you didn't have them. It changes the way students work and they way teachers teach.
Like your comment about how the iPads don't become the focus of the learning. That's a thought that's been on my mind recently - the importance of the perception of "seamlessness" in tech usage.
That's probably one of the most important reasons a technology gets adapted - no matter how cumbersome it seems at first (e.g. learning how to drive a car) - because the normal usage of the technology doesn't hinder the intended task at hand. (That's why once you learn to ride a bike, you don't think so much about the bicycle itself as you think about moving faster.)
Think Donald Norman in "The Design of Everyday Things" has a term for this: affordability.
So I guess, my thought on the usage of the iPad (and any new tech at hand): The learning of the new tech need not be intuitive. But the everyday usage has to seamlessly flow with the given task at hand - so that the tool and the user become "one" with the task. (Just like how a user fumbles with a pair of chopsticks at first, but once he masters it, his chopsticks "become" part of his fingers.)
Then such seamless technologies get seamlessly adopted as "cognitive-multipliers".
FRAMED* Interface is a screen that is seamlessly integrated with your iphone app, functioning as an intelligent and powerful control system.
NIE should have something like this around the corridors, collabrative classroom and COTF rather then the normal LCD TV to take advantage of interacting with mobile devices.
I just happened to think: Imagine if this pattern-recognition tech concept could be adapted to mobile phones in the near future, it might make for a very powerful blended learning / augmented reality tool. :) According to the researcher, implementation for mobile devices is feasible.
Possible applications for m-learning could be: gestural recognition, dynamic object association and the like.
E.g. If we could use an iPhone/Kinect to track a student's movements and remotely control an external apparatus halfway across the globe (maybe explore an Amazonian jungle to study biodiversity first-hand), or help disabled students (maybe cerebral palsy sufferers) communicate their thoughts more clearly... or perhaps get the students to "air-sketch" Chinese/Tamil characters to produce music on the go...
For more info: http://info.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/Z.Kalal/
A recent study of Google+ showed that it is more popular with parents than students, which could be a favorable indicator of how popular it is for those educators of the same generation.
One example of how teachers are using Google+ Pages to run their classrooms, is that of Mr. McDowell who teaches World History at West Hills High School. Mr. McDowell has made great use of Google’s tools to give students access to documents, schedules, presentations, videos and password protected areas like attendance and grade records.
access to Google+ tools and pages from any computer promotes interactivity on the site and is a big hit with educators
From an instructor’s perspective, Twitter offers the ability to prompt students throughout the learning process by asking them to reflect on learning strategies and time management, which ultimately raises metacognitive awareness.
While the use of Twitter only shows a slight increase in grades (about .5 percent), it substantially improves engagement and motivation
Twitter enhances the social presence outside of the classroom, which leads to overall course satisfaction.
if student satisfaction, engagement, and metacognitive awareness are all part of your definition of a successful course, then introducing Twitter in your classroom may be an option for you.
Twitter is not static. Rather, it is an interactive tool under learner control. Further, Maria Bannert refers to a metacognitive support device that “focuses students’ attention on their own thoughts and on understanding the activities they are engaged in during the course of learning.” When used explicitly as a tool to improve self-regulation through metacognitive support, Twitter becomes very effective.
Splashtop Whiteboard allows teachers and students to turn their iPad into an interactive whiteboard. By connecting to their classroom computer over Wi-Fi, they can watch Flash media with fully synchronized video and audio, control their favorite applications then annotate lesson content all from an iPad. Teachers can now interact with students at their desks or from all four corners of the classroom.
Pastiche® by Xyleme is a turnkey solution that allows you to rapidly assemble existing textbooks, interactive multi-media, test prep, and moment-of-need support materials and publish them on-demand to any number of customizable and privately branded iPad or Kindle Fire apps.
The Pastiche ecosystem is made up of three components: the Pastiche tablet app, a set of authoring and publishing tools, and the Pastiche Store. The Pastiche Store is a hosted content distribution platform to provide your users seamless yet controlled access to your learning catalog. An intuitive Web admin interface allows you to upload new or updated products and gives you the ability to make them available on per-user, per-group, or public basis.
Well,
that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising announcement,
Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for
today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby,
and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is
the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can
share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of
the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you
extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic
shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the
rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the
end as well.
There
isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for
the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being
able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic
shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the
light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master
the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected
a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3
18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked,
so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to
save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that
unlike the Olympus PEN,
this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto
focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of
course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is
revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in
brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio
sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you
can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may
notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our
lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10
certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the
filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in
September.
Update: commenter
aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
HTML5, which updates the HTML specification to accommodate modern Web applications, has gained a lot of adherents in vendors
like Microsoft, Google, and Apple. But the specification is plain not ready yet for deployment to websites, an official with
the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees HTML5, stressed this week
The problem we're facing right now is there is already a lot of excitement for HTML5, but it's a little too early to deploy it because we're running into interoperability issues," including differences between
video on devices
HTML5 is viewed as a "game changer." Companies now can deploy HTML5 in their applications or in intranets
where a rendering engine can be controlled, said Le Hegaret. But it is a different story on the "open Web," where interoperability
is an issue
HTML5 specification itself features support for video and Canvas 2D. But other technologies such as CSS (Cascading Style
Sheets) and MathML are considered part of the "open Web platform" along with HTML5
Apple has positioned HTML5 as a replacement for Adobe's Flash rich Internet technology. But Flash and similar technologies, such as Microsoft Silverlight, still have a place
We're not going to retire Flash anytime soon," Le Hegaret said. It will take years before all Web clients support HTML5,
he said. He cited Microsoft's IE6 browser as an example of popular client not supporting the standard. "IE6 is still being
used on the Web today, and it is 10 years old."
Although Second Life's finances seem to be in the black (it is a
We're already on the cusp of a fully-immersive 3D experience that could go mainstream. Microsoft's Kinect peripheral for its gaming console, for example, allows gamers to control their onscreen characters with body movements captured by 3D cameras. Sony's PlayStation Home offers a sharp, high-definition virtual world. Maybe these companies could teach Linden Labs a thing or two about advancing the technology and vision behind Second Life.
The learning curve for Second Life is also steep, no thanks to its cumbersome user interface. Even a mildly proficient Internet user might be put off.
EmbedPlus is a simple and free to use web service. You can play only a specific portion of the video in your site. Your site visitors might also want to zoom in or slow down specific parts of the video while viewing it. All this is now possible if you embed videos with the help of EmbedPlus.
The iPad has a bigger screen, and so it has a bigger resolution. With the iPhone 4, however, Apple did something different: they increased the resolution without changing the physical size of the screen. This makes for a higher pixel density, pixels are smaller and more tightly packed. In one square inch of the iPhone 4’s screen there are around 106 thousand pixels (at 326 PPI, or Pixels per Inch), while the older models have only about 26 thousand (at 163 PPI) in an inch – 4 times less! This makes graphics on the screen seem like continuous lines, because your eye can’t see the individual pixels. Apple calls this technology the “Retina Display” because they claim the human eye (the retina) can’t physically see the pixels at this resolution.
Using Two Images
The official way of adding high-resolution support to your application is by having two versions of each image, one in “regular” resolution and one in double resolution. Whenever your application is viewed on the Retina Display, the larger image will be loaded automatically. This method allows for full and precise control of how your application will look in each case, and is very easy to apply to your existing applications.
The full size image file should be named however you want, such as “Button.png”. Use this image name in your code and Interface Builder wherever you want to reference the image. The double-size image should be twice the size of its matching smaller image and named exactly the same with “@2x” appended to the name. In our example, we would name it “Button@2x.png”.
Unfortunately, this technique will not work on the iPad; a pixel-doubled application will not load the higher resolution resource. This will probably be addressed in the future iOS 4 update which is scheduled to come to iPad this fall.
wittyben on 22 Nov 12Give spashtop 2 and touchpad a try... I found them fast and useful. Especially touchpad... allows me to control my mac/win with my iphone.
