• Explore

  3.0 3d 3g Adobe android Apple application att blackberry ces Design Education Facebook free G1 games google haptic information interface iPhone ipod itunes mac macworld mobile music obama phone release resource review sdk software storm Technology touch twitter usability user user experience Verizon video web wireless

• Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

I want these instead of those lame wooden letter blocks for my daughter. Toy blocks that think!

MIT has created a guitar that utilizes wood and electronic sensors to imitate nearly any guitar sound. These are the same amazing researchers that have created The Sixth Sense, & Siftables

Acoustic instruments with their wood-grain patterns produce unique sounds, but a prototype guitar built by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student combines the natural acoustics of wood with the power of electronic processing.

Called the Chameleon Guitar, it can mimic different instruments using an on-board computer and replaceable wood soundboards.

Instead of having a full-shaped chamber, like an acoustic guitar, violin, or other string instrument, the Chameleon’s wood soundboard has several small sensors that send acoustic information to a computer that then interprets and processes the sounds. “So what we have is the authentic behavior of the wood, but we also have the computer control like a synthesizer, but it’s much more authentic than a synthesizer,” said Amit Zoran, the developer of the guitar and a student at MIT’s Media Lab.

“A normal synthesizer synthesizes the fundamentals of a sound and is something created on a computer, but here we don’t create the sound from nothing,” Zoran said. The strings vibrate and attenuate the bridge of the guitar and then the sound moves like any other acoustic instrument.

Wook Yeon Hwang, a guitarist for 20 years and MIT Media Lab associate agreed. “The problem with synthesized instruments is that they pick a sound at one particular moment so every time it sounds the same,” he said. “It’s almost impossible to put my feelings into the music.”

Being able to play on a guitar that uses the natural acoustics of the wood, instead of synthesis, is much better and much more important to musicians, said Hwang, who gave Zoran feedback as the guitar was developed.

Zoran only has two working wood soundboards for now. Both are made from red cedar, but one creates a sound that is more like an acoustic guitar, sonorous and open, while the other mimics a hard-body instrument and the sound of an electric guitar. The soundboards can be replaced in about 15 seconds, with the guitar needing to be retuned each time. At the tapered end of the board, opposite the bridge, there is a chip that plugs into the on-board computer and relays sound signals gathered from each pluck of the instrument.

Zoran has fabricated other experimental soundboards. One has metal screws in it and Zoran said that when the screw placement is changed, the sound will as well. One soundboard is hollow with a rubber stopper, allowing it to be filled with water or oil, which will create different acoustic properties. Yet another soundboard is made from the wood of a 150-year-old bridge in Vermont. Making an entire guitar from the aged wood would be near impossible if not prohibitively expensive, but because the soundboard is small the project was manageable.

At the heart of the instrument, and the part that has yet to be fully developed, is an on-board processing computer. On the front of each of the soundboards are five electronic pick ups that feed two stereo signals and one mono signal into the processing chip. Using software, the computer will interpret the unique sounds from the wood soundboard, mix it with the electronic audio properties on the chip and output the sound to an amplification unit.

Since the current prototype doesn’t have the on-board software, Zoran said that what is being heard is only 5 percent of the actual sound that can be produced by the guitar — only the natural resonation of the each of the unique wood soundboards can be heard. Once the software is written, Zoran said that musicians will be able to experiment in ways never possible, such as “playing” a guitar that is the size of a skyscraper.

Under the direction of MIT Media Lab Associate Professor Pattie Maes, Zoran has been working on the Chameleon Guitar for about a year. He finished his proof-of-concept in August 2008 and after receiving positive feedback from Hwang and other musicians, he decided to take it further. Zoran worked with a Boston instrument maker, Marco Coppiardi, to build the guitar from scratch. Zoran’s next step is to further integrate the guitar’s computer and program the software. After that, he’ll continue testing it with professional players, refine it and hopefully bring it to market.

Zoran wants to be able to give musicians something that they can’t get from an acoustic instrument — the freedom to change the sound.

“That is something that exists on synthesizers and digital instruments, but they lack the authentic properties of wood.” Zoran thinks his creation will open up experimentation for musicians because they will no longer need to purchase multiple, expensive instruments.

The article can be found HERE

The SCS.3M is an amazing touch sensitive DJ controller that works with many music software programs.

You can check out their site for more information. Stanton

Richard Devine puts it through its paces here and describes why he likes it.

Organ virtuoso Qi Zhang plays her electric rendering of “Ridiculous Fellows” from Prokofiev’s “The Love for Three Oranges” orchestral suite. This exhilarating performance from TEDx USC features the Yamaha Electone Stagea, a rare, imported instrument specially programmed by Qi herself.

About Qi Zhang

Qi Zhang is a Master’s candidate at University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, and an award-winning international organist. Full bio and more links

My Favorite Presentation from TED.

These new skins can be cut and placed on any device. Most people, I imagine, will put them on a phone. But couldn’t you see it being on your door and changing color when it is locked? Or how about on your iPod and change when you put on different songs? How about on your clothes and change the color to match your mood?

Who knows exactly how they will be applied in the future, but I think I probably want one…or at least want to see it in person. In the meantime, there are a couple videos of it HERE.

As a researcher and professional working with accessibility, special needs, education, usability and interaction design, I am constantly searching for better ways to present information. Especially complex and dynamic information.

Web 2.0 has introduced cloud sourced information that defies traditional representations (graphs and pie charts). We as an industry of information technology specialists need to find ways to present interactive information in an understandable, interesting and fun way.

I have written about ManyEyes before as a great idea (in thought, while maybe not implementation) of how to ask society at large how they wish to be presented with this information, hopefully to find a way that works across cultures in way finding and understanding of information.

As I get ready to leave for UPA 2009 Conference in Portland, I am following and connecting with my colleagues who are already there or on their way. This is easily done through Twitter and its myriad of applications. Squidoo List of Twitter Apps.

Over the last couple of years, I have seen several implementations that collect social feeds, but this UPA2009 Twitter Feed’s animation styles are really interesting.

I took that and created a search based on My Tweets

I highly recommend going to The Man in Blue’s VisibleTweets Site and try creating one for yourself.

There were not too many surprises at for the announcements today at the opening of WWDC 2009. The release date continues to be the same for the iPhone 3.0 update and there newest iPhone. There are some Snow Leopard announcements and some hardware changes for the year. This is a list of the essentials.

iPhone 3.0 is free for iPhone owners, naturally. $9.95 for iPod touch owners. Available worldwide June 17, the day often cited and the most likely release date for the new iPhone.

The key improvements for the 3.0 software have been heard before (additional blog entries on iPhone 3.0 Software updates):

• Cut, copy & paste
• Landscape and landscape keyboard to Mail, Notes and Messages
• In app purchases (e.g. magazine subscriptions)Peer to peer connectivity (for games, mostly)
• Accessories (glucose level readers best example)
• Maps. Embed Google Map services into your app. Turn by turn directions
• Push notifications. ESPN score alerts. Instant messages. Numbers (like how many messages are backed up).
• Sounds.

iPhone 3GS announced today. 2 to 3.6 times faster. Not everything is as fast. Average two times faster. Built in 7.2 Mbps HSDPA. Amazing features (most of which we’ve heard in the rumors previously):

• Built-in camera. 3 megapixel, not 3.2 as expected. Autofocus, whitebalance, exposure, tap to focus. Low light sensitivity better. Automacro as well, as close as 10 cm away.
• Also captures video. New switch that says still or video. 30 frames per second. autofocus etc.
• Edit from the iPhone.
• Can share (AT&T doesn’t yet)
• Voice control. Hold down the home button. Commands you can use are scrolling by. Call contact. What’s playing now. Play more songs like this (makes Genius playlist on the fly.)
• Built-in digital compass.
• Accessibility features.
• Support for Nike +
• Hardware encryption (for the IT guys). Makes for instantaneous remote wipe.
• Improved battery life. Up to 9 hours surfing with wifi, 30 hours of audio, 12 hours of 2G talk time, 5 hours of 3G talk.
• Fastest, most powerful iPhone yet

This new iPhone is coming July 19. There is a $99 iPhone, available now. There are new MacBook Pros. And there are lots of things for the developers to learn about iPhone 3.0 and Mac OS X. But there is no Steve Jobs. He seems to be out of the picture (at least until July 19th).

Prices for new iPhone:

• 16 GB $199
• 32 GB $299
• In addition, keeping the iPhone 3G on the market for $99 for 8 GB

That 8GB price starts today.

For more details, see:

Apple

All these new tools coming out of Adobe Labs! It is making it easier and easier for designers and developers to communicate easily with each other. My hope is that it will lead to better collaboration which brings better products for humans.

More information can be found on the Adobe Site (added since the video that used to be embedded was not working for some viewers)

This was the introduction Demo given by Kevin Lynch at Web 2.0 Expo 2009.

So you think you’re computer-illiterate? Check out the following excerpts from a Wall Street Journal article by Jim Carlton –

1. Compaq is considering changing the command “Press Any Key” to “Press Return Key” because of the flood of calls asking where the “Any” key is.

2. AST technical support had a caller complaining that her mouse was hard to control with the dust cover on. The cover turned out to be the plastic bag the mouse was packaged in.

3. Another Compaq technician received a call from a man complaining that the system wouldn’t read word processing files from his old diskettes. After trouble- shooting for magnets and heat failed to diagnose the problem, it was found that the customer labeled the diskettes then rolled them into the typewriter to type the labels.

4. Another AST customer was asked to send a copy of her defective diskettes. A few days later a letter arrived from the customer along with Xeroxed copies of the floppies.

5. A Dell technician advised his customer to put his troubled floppy back in the drive and close the door. The customer asked the tech to hold on, and was heard putting the phone down, getting up and crossing the room to close the door to his room.

6. Another Dell customer called to say he couldn’t get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of trouble-shooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the “send” key.

7. Yet another Dell customer called to complain that his keyboard no longer worked. He had cleaned it by filling up his tub with soap and water and soaking the keyboard for a day, then removing all the keys and washing them individually.

8. A Dell technician received a call from a customer who was enraged because his computer had told him he was “bad and an invalid”. The tech explained that the computer’s “bad command” and “invalid” responses shouldn’t be taken personally.

9. An exasperated caller to Dell Computer Tech Support couldn’t get her new Dell Computer to turn on. After ensuring the computer was plugged in, the technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Her response, “I pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happens.” The “foot pedal” turned out to be the computer’s mouse.

10. Another customer called Compaq tech support to say her brand-new computer wouldn’t work. She said she unpacked the unit, plugged it in, and sat there for 20 minutes waiting for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked “What power switch?”

11. True story from a Novell NetWire SysOp:

Caller: “Hello, is this Tech Support?”
Tech: “Yes, it is. How may I help you?”
Caller: “The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting that fixed?”
Tech: “I’m sorry, but did you say a cup holder?”
Caller: “Yes, it’s attached to the front of my computer.”
Tech: “Please excuse me if I seem a bit stumped, It’s because I am. Did you receive this as part of a promotional, at a trade show? How did you get this cup holder? Does it have any trademark on it?”
Caller: “It came with my computer, I don’t know anything about a promotional. It just has ‘24X’ on it.”

At this point the Tech Rep had to mute the caller, because he couldn’t stand it. The caller had been using the load drawer of the CD-ROM drive as a cup holder, and snapped it off.

As a technology consultant at Achieve Kids, I am often the GO-TO Guy for technology outside the scope of the workplace. Sometimes this can be annoying, but when its about mobile phones, touch and gestural interfaces like the exciting Microsoft Xbox Natal gaming idea,

and Apple products, I am happy to oblige and “geek out” for a minute.

Just yesterday, there were questions to me,

“When is the new iPhone 3.0 update supposed to happen?”

“When can I cut & paste on my iPod Touch?”

“Is this new iTunes update for 3.0? Why is it numbered wrong?”

The iTunes 8.2 update gives support to iPhones and iPod Touches that have the iPhone 3.0 update……But the 3.0 update has not been released yet. Its an interesting order of events, but for those of us who are anxiously awaiting the new APIs coming with the iPhone update, this is like a teaser trailer.

In addition, the iTunes 8.2 has improved security. Apparently there is also improved bounds checking in the upgrade to prevent a stack buffer overflow problem that could lead to unexpected app termination or arbitrary code execution.

There is still not a specific hard date given for when the iPhone update will be but, but it’s expected to take center stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which takes place June 8 – 12, 2009 in San Francisco.

Several articles have come out over the last 3 days about the iTunes 8.2 update

Macworld
The official Apple details
iPhone Mobility Blog

• Search for:

•  

  November 2009

  M	T	W	T	F	S	S
  « Jun
  						1
  2	3	4	5	6	7	8
  9	10	11	12	13	14	15
  16	17	18	19	20	21	22
  23	24	25	26	27	28	29
  30

• Usability Consulting

  UserZen