the new Lego

Ok, the Danish have invented the lego as we all know and played with however the Finnish invented the next cool set of building blocks. The people at http://www.multitouch.fi did an amazing job. Don't know yet what is cost (probably even don't want to however MII can use this in the concepts we design so I might drop them a mail to ask about the pricing)



These building blocks can be stacked in any way so think multitouch walls, floors and furniture (maybe not at the same time since that might be a bit overkill). Just look at this

And before you start thinking this is just an artist impression of something that only exists on the drawing board just look further to

There is also a nice youtube video on the web showing a bit more of the possibilities. Some kind of 3D and multitouch stackable like lego. This is toys for boys:)

touch interfaces available now

I was looking at the new HP Touchsmart computer since I really like the interface. It's a complete touch enabled interface (hope the next version will be multitouch so you can do even cooler stuff with it). This computer would be a great communication device to communicate with the family in house or use it in any place where a wall mounted touch computer would be a benefit. For a nice demo of the interface look at this youtube video

Looking at the HP touchsmart triggered me to look at different ways of searching information on the internet. I looked at a way that would fit into the touch interface of the HP touchsmart and this search brought me to http://corp.viewzi.com/ as a nice way to search info. You still use your favorit browser however the search is done in a different way (but still using google and yahoo). It presents information in different views depending on your needs. There is a great way to search for pictures (using Flickr) or have your information stored on a timeline (based upon google timeline) to make it visible in time





You can easily switch view by just slecting a different view from the ribbon on top


It makes the search a bit slower but that's worth the convenience and nice way to crawl through it. Obviously the still is room for improvement but I'm sure the will do improve over time and combined with a touch computer like the surface (as I talked about in an earlier blog) of the new HP Touchsmart it's a powerfull utility

It took some time but it's great to see how (multi)touch will become a serious way of interacting next to the good ols mouse and keyboard and it give great new opportunities to handling information and in the era of information overflow this is a great thing

ITIL beyond IT

It's great to see most companies manage their IT infrastructure in a well structured way using a methodology like ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library). According to the ITIL website ITIL® is the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world. ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practice, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally.

When looking at ITIL it will bring you some great benefits

• reduced costs
• improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes
• improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery
  standards and guidance
• improved productivity
• improved use of skills and experience
• improved delivery of third party services through the specification of ITIL or ISO 20000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements.

In order to be able to use ITIL and get the full set of benefits there are a lot of great tools available on the market helping you in managing these processes.

When looking at the structure of the processes and the tools available it would make sense to use ITIL outside the IT as well. There are some examples of this but one of the most common is missing here. It is a great way to manage your Audio/Visual infrastructure.

Although most AV infrastructures are not that mature yet (although this will change rapidly in the near future since the AV equipment makes this more and more easy to do) it would still be wise to use ITIL to manage your AV infrastructure. This would help any team managing an enterprise AV infrastructure to manage this more pro-actively, improve availability, manage costs in a better way and supports the process of thinking in a strategic way about the future of your AV infrastructure.

ITIL can facilitate the process of getting more mature without huge investments since most enterprises already have the tools in place to manage the IT infrastructure (let's be honest, there is not a big difference between and IT and AV incident, nor much difference in managing IT or AV configuration items and both should have a Service Level Agreement with their internal customers on the support and services they can expect). When using these tools you automatically create an integrated approach to managing your IT and AV infrastructure.

The big challenge here however might be that in general IT and AV report into different groups in an enterprise (IT versus Facilities). If we can get passed this barrier we see many opportunities to save costs and at the same time improve quality of the infrastructure and services.

location based services part 2

Last weekend I was in Berlin for the in-line marathon (1:37:44) and everybody (except for the elite since they only have a gross time and not a net time) was wearing these RFID based yellow pods as runners do. This made time tracking much easier but has a big disadvantage. You need to cross a physical line for measuring. The systems measures your starttime, halftime and finish time. I basically works great to tell you your ranking and time but it misses some great info like your speed at any point, where you accelerated etc.

When these devices were developed it made perfect sense since a GPS device was still bulky. Also the accuracy compared to GPS is much better. However when looking at the current state of technology it would be great to combine the RFID based solution as we have right now with a gps sensor and a sim card (any local prepaid simcard would do). Then you have the power of an accurate time keeping with the advantage of on line track/race info.

This would be a great help in analyzing your race start to finish since this dataset is a great overlay on eg google maps to compare road conditions with speed. Also info on altitude variances would be made visible

At the same time you give the people at home a nice way to interactively follow your race, get online stats etc and the race director and press a great tool for visualizing the race in a different way for those who watch the race

When looking at GPS module currently available ( eg. http://edageek.com/2008/09/16/ublox-amy-gps/) it should be possible to integrate this with some electronic circuits and a sim card in the same yellow RFID chip already used in races. Power can be taken from a small rechargeable battery combined maybe even with solar cells

The system would be the same as now with the RFID based devices. You either buy one and can use the same in any race or you rent one (with a deposit for the same amount of money to buy one). If you buy one the RFID part might only be useful in a race but the gps part would be be well usable in a training (you still can upload your data to a computer and analyse it) when using your private sim card. The databases can vary with the sim you use. So a private sim for training and a race sim (prepaid and local provided by the race organization) during the race

The same then can be done with tracking any large amount of people in an open space like an open air festival. The only challenge would be buildings (depending on the construction material and power of the GPS unit)

Location based services

Since office become more and more flexible and employees will not have their own desk anymore you as a company will run into some challenges like how do I find my peers in the building (are they in the building or not). Location based services in your building or on your campus can be a big help here. Obvious for privacy reasons the people will move around the floor plan without names (until you search for a specific person). This makes finding people easy and people moving around on a floor plan displayed in the reception area are a great way to entertain visitor waiting but there are some extra serious benefits as well.

Just think about:

Safety:
Despite some block out areas (like the toilet groups) it would be helpful if some people are not moving for a certain amount of time.
Security:
It is always very helpful if, in case of an emergency, you know exactly who is in the building and more important where they are in the building. Obviously this will be the case for regular employees and guests
Facility management:
It is a great management tool on the usage of the building. you know exactly how the building is used by various employee groups and can adjust the building layout according to this. Also this would help you planning office expansions
IT:
In case a helpdesk engineer has to come over to support you they can use this to find you but they can also use the data to provide the right IT facilities (perfect planning of amount of printers and their location)
Communication:
When using a digital signage solution to communicate with the employees you can use the data for better targeting the message within your building or campus

Depending on the building (how it is built, your already available IT facilities etc) there are several ways to do this. You can use your wireless access point to calculate where peoples computers are (when working wireless, wires can just use the location of the ethernet wall outlet). This is the most easy way but when somebody walls away for a break while leaving his/her computer on a desk the quality of the data will decrease.

Another option would be using RFID tags on the badges. This would enable you to create the desired grid (some areas might need a more dense and thus accurate grid than others). This solution gives you great insight in the way a facility is used while on the other hand facilitating the employees. The only point of attention is privacy so before implementing create awareness about the solution and impact and adjust the shown information to the needs so privacy van be respected

Another great multitouch table (and it seems to be in production as well)

Just read an article in dag (a Dutch free newspaper) about a multitouch table that actually is on sale already so no more waiting for the Microsoft surface anymore (unless you are looking for the sphere)


On bright.tv there is a nice clip of this table (in dutch but you get the point anyway when looking). This clip can be found at http://www.bright.tv/series/cantouch-tafel and shows a nice application as well. If your phone is tagged with a chip (but I guess this could be done via BT as well:) and multiple persons (well at least 2) put their phone on the table the social network of your contacts is made visible so you can see who is connected to whom and in which way. Great for any social environment like a bar but also a company's entrance area or restaurant/coffee bar


Since this version is already available developers are there as well so this might be a great opportunity to get one for your environment and let people play with their social networks, pictures and whatever you can think of




the companies website can be found at http://www.cantouch.nl/CanTouch/nederlands/main.html and they have an English version available.


The system is based on open source standards around multi touch (easy to find when looking for do it yourself multitouch) that proved their value already

The ideal information worker desk

Hi

I think most of us will be information workers or at least very much interested in the technology enabling an information worker to work. I was doing a bit of brainstorming yesterday imagining how my ideal desk would look like to make me most productive while it would still pass the wife test (if it does not fit in the interior forget it, or if your lucky you can have it in your own room only)

So mine would be made of a flexible glass like material. the desk would be touch enabled so no use for a keyboard anymore (or a mouse). Just habve the on screen (on desk) keyboard to use. Also it should include an area to scan documents anf the ugly printer (yep, still use it sometimes) should be an integrated part (most likely in one of the 2 stands)

The screen schould be bendable at least on 1 area so I can either use it as 1 table (easy when having a meeting) or it should be pulled up on 1 side to have a convinient screen to read from

For commercial reasons it obvious should remember me (and other people using it when I'm not there) and adjust the height. For personal use this doesn't matter to me.

What does matters to me is wireless USB and VGA (ok it will be a bit higher resolution but ok) or ultrawide band. Still use a laptop and like it if I could just either put it on the desk or put it somewhere underneath without all the cables (probably except for power)

I'll try to make a sketch later but I'm wondering:

1. What is your ideal desk?
2. Can you help me in some way to make it happen (build software, have great skills in manufacturing this kind of furniture)

Looking forward to your input and see if we can make this come true

Would you date this girl?

I guess we need a new version of the Turing test. For those of you whom never has heard of the Turing test please read the definition given by Wiki

The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a machine's ability to demonstrate intelligence. Described by Alan Turing in the 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," it proceeds as follows: a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which try to appear human; if the judge cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine is said to pass the test. In order to test the machine's intelligence rather than its ability to render words into audio, the conversation is limited to a text-only channel such as a computer keyboard and screen (Turing originally suggested a teletype machine, one of the few text-only communication systems available in 1950).

When reading this definition there should be a text only channel for obvious reasons. If you could see what'son the other side it might be intelligent but it clearly doesn't look and act as a human being (although robots are getting closer but would you fall in love with a robot of the current generation).

Well when looking at this video it is hard to imagine your not looking at a person (ok, video representation of) but a computer generated image





Emily - the woman in the above linked animation - was produced using a new modelling technology that enables the most minute details of a facial expression to be captured and recreated.
She is considered to be one of the first animations to have overleapt a long-standing barrier known as 'uncanny valley' - which refers to the perception that animation looks less realistic as it approaches human likeness.

This means we could replace the text based input by video input/output for the Turing test. I wonder how long it will take before the Turing test can overcomethe next barrier

Microsoft's Sphere

After introducing the surface computer in a casino in Vegas and some selected Sheraton Hotels Microsoft introduced a new type of surface computer

At Microsoft's Faculty Summit, researchers showed off a spherical computer prototype with an internal projection and vision system. Microsoft believes surfaces will become computer displays and “Sphere” is cousin to the Microsoft Surface tabletop computer, now being used in retail and hospitality settings.

With Sphere, users can touch the surface to control the computer, to manipulate photos, play games or watch 360-degree videos. The underlying hardware for Sphere is sold commercially by Global Imagination but Microsoft researchers made enhancements and developed special software.

Curved surfaces present unique challenges as computer displays and that makes this spherical novelty of interest to digital signage installers where technological novelty can be part of the attraction.

more info at Microsoft Sphere and Sphere Hardware

Also some great info with a small clip and explanation diagram here

IBC to Deliver the first Transatlantic High Definition Stereoscopic 3D broadcast

Just found a great article in BusinessWire about a transatlantic 3D videoconference. The greatest thing is it will actually happen on september 14th. I admit it is not yet multipoint but at least it's a great start and clearly shows what the near future will bring the corporate world

please click here to go to the article

IT’s AVision™

In a few steps to an integrated IT and AV environment

In general an IT environment is well structured and processes and tools are usually based upon the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) concepts. It would make sense to use the same approach to manage your AV environment to increase availability and save costs. MII can help you in a few steps to an integrated vision on managing your integrated IT and AV infrastructure and helps to define a path to the integrated environment using MII's unique IT’s AVision™ methodology. In a diagram it looks like the 4 steps as outlined below. It provides the vision with a growth path attached to it to avoid a disinvestment of the current environment(s)


No matter of the current stage of maturity of your AV environment the methodology can be applied to help you migrate from level 1 (completely stand alone) to level 4 (fully managed integrated environment) for all items and not just the obvious like projectors. These 4 levels are shown here.
If you like to know more about how MIIcan help you save money while increasing quality without desinvestments please contact MII (http://www.mii.nu/ or info@mii.nu )

Suggest your topic (while I keep writing on the next topic)

It's great to see a steady rapid growth in people who read my blog about the integration of AV and IT so in order to make it even more worth reading the blog for all of you I would appriciate if you suggest the topics you like to learn more about or to hear our vision on

So please post your reply with suggestions and I get back to them:)
In the meantime I keep writing on the next blogstory about managing the AV infrstructure in a structured way and what we can learn from the IT world here.

I'm also working on a nice gadget like post again:)

Regards,
Ben

Using digital signage in an enterprise environment, should you choose an AV or IT solution?

When looking at digital signage wiki tells us:
Digital signage are electronic displays that are installed in public spaces. Digital signs are typically used to entertain, inform or advertise (together known as "adfotainment"). Major benefits of digital signs over traditional static signs are that the content can be exchanged without effort, animations can be shown, the signs can adapt to the context and audience, and even be interactive. Digital signage advertising is a form of out-of-home advertising in which content and messages are displayed on digital signs, typically with the goal of delivering targeted messages to specific locations at specific times.

Key points here are that we use them to entertain, inform or advertise and that they can easily adapt to context and audience. This makes it a great tool for marketing/sales but also for use in a corporate environment. When looking at implementations in a corporate environment there are some obvious benefits compared to traditional systems like e.g. paper based posters to go for a digital signage solution:

• Greater speed to communicate and (re)act,
• Cost saving compared to print and distribute paper based posters,
• Less waste and impact on environment compared to e.g. paper based posters,
• Much more possibilities in terms of media to use (text, audio, video)
• Possibilities for interactivity
• Image (a wall with 1 big screen looks different than a lot of posters on the same wall)

However there are some challenges as well that organizations will face when implementing a digital signage solution to communicate to their staff (and customers at the location of the office):

• In general the available systems are proprietary which makes it hard to expand them (in size) or to add new functionality to the implementation, especially when this is not standard functionality of the product as is. This means that whenever selecting the product and the partner you do not only need to look at the current needs and demands but also at the future to avoid a disinvestment
• How to use the screens and fit them into the corporate managed infrastructure. Are you using the screens only for showing content or are the part of a larger vision where you for example use them for displaying corporate information when idle. Are you considering using existing screens to be part of the system (and do not think about the obvious screens only, what about the room reservation system screens)
  
  One of the biggest strengths of digital signage is the ability to update content across all screens from a central location — it represents the end of counting on employees to travel from location to location, changing POP materials turning the devices on or off. But surprisingly, most of the people digital signage today surveyed aren’t taking advantage of this — more than half of the respondents who use digital signage have their screens centrally networked. Instead, they are relying on “sneakernet” update methods, such as manually inserting DVDs or flash cards at the screen level.
  
• Who is allowed to generate content, is there a workflow required between creation and publication. Will all employees be able to generate content but before publication it needs to be signed of by the editor (to check the content against the guidelines, guard the corporate style and make sure the content is appropriate). Is the content already available on the corporate network or will this be delivered by e.g. a 3rd party
• What type of content (audio, video (standard definition, high definition and live streams), text and which formats are needed)
• What type of employees do you have and what is your companies working style. Is everybody always in the office or is everybody working flexible, not just flexible seating but also flexible locations (working from home, hotel, airport, customer location) and how do you like to fit this in the communication plan
• What about different content for different target audiences (customers vs employees, office bound employees versus home working/traveling employees, different physical office locations)
  

From this point of view it would be wise when looking for a digital signage system not to focus on the traditional solutions only but also look in the ICT domain and explore the options a SharePoint based digital signage system can do for you (great examples are

netpresenter and advantive) . These systems in general are:

• Less rigid since it’s a platform on which you can easily create extensions
• Far more easy to integrate in your existing infrastructure and for a lot of companies it already is integrated to a certain extend before starting off building a digital signage solution on top of the platform.
• Give more possibilities to reach out to your employees that are working from a location that is not your office. You can for example also publish to a screensaver or tickertape on any employees pc
• Easy to integrate with your existing intranet and extranet
• Completely integrated with all office products you probably already use so information publishing can be done directly from the applications used to create the info (while you can still use workflow management for approval before publishing)
• Cheaper (especially if you already have the licenses for SharePoint)
• Managing the digital signage environment can be done with the existing management tools you also use for managing the rest of your infrastructure. Also managing a sharepoint based environment is managing something familiar instead of a total new concept

Again this is a great example of IT and AV blending together and creating new opportunities for cost savings while increasing flexibility, agility and availability

What if you combine holograms and Multi Touch

If you combine multi-touch and holographic projection you get some fancy new ways to handle data. Just look at this amazing concept from Obscura

New VisionAire technology from Obscura
Here is the latest. Alright, alright, it is not really "multi-touch", because you really dont touch anything. The system just senses where the presenters hands are and allow him to interact. Multiple people could be doing this too.We call it VisionAire. Get it, "vision" and "air" with a little European flair. Basically, we were looking for a new way to allow a presenter to interface with visual data. This uses our standard multi-touch framework and integrates it with the Musion system we have in house. The result is a truly interactive way to give presentations. See for yourself.




An other cool video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgLmd0AgYW8

About obscura:
Obscura Digital is an industry leading digital design and technology marketing agency based in San Francisco. Our focus is to use technology to help our customers extend their brand and message in new ways.

IT/AV integration curve

The Evolution of AV Systems according to InfoComm International

The basic fact of technology convergence is the digitization of analog AV products and solutions. It is the least transforming aspect of the technology convergence process, and most manufacturers have adapted rather swiftly.

The deepest changes have come from the dissolution of the walls that compartmentalized technology silos, such as security, audiovisual, low-voltage applications (structured wiring), telephone systems, and IP telephony. These critical applications converge over the IT network for easier implementation and management.


Traditionally self-contained AV rooms are turned into nodes on organization-wide IT infrastructures.

Consequently, the systems they are outfitted with are required to be designed and configured to operate and be managed from the central IT backbone in order to integrate seamlessly with the overall communications infrastructure.

When reading this and turning this convergence into reality you can look at the integration curve as designed by MII (see picture)

By moving your AV infrastructure from stand alone components into a completely managed integrated environment you can increase availability of the total infrastructure against lower costs. It also give an organization new ways to communicate (content can be shared more easy since everything is integrated into 1 managed environment)


Doing so however requires some knowledge when designing. Not all equipment can be attached to a networked environment (your stand alone projector would not fit in). Also when managing this using your IT management environment some custom made adjustments might be needed. This asks for a strong collaboration between the group managing the IT environment and the group managing the AV environment. However it is worth makingthe investment and create a platform that gives you not just somenew opportunities or cost savings but a fundament for the near future as well