Thanks to Nicolas, I found this nice search engine, called, iSpecies, which core idea is that web results can be grouped according to the species of the document. The engine uses several data sources, hacking on the aggregation and clustering of the data:

iSpecies uses web services to talk to source databases, extract data, and assemble a page for each species. The code makes extensive use of XML. Essentially, each web service returns XML in one form or another, and I use and XSL style sheets to transform the result into HTML.

[blog]

Tags: clustering, search engine

The Entertaible concept is a tabletop gaming platform that marries traditional multi-player board and computer games in a uniquely simple and intuitive way. Entertaible comprises a 30-inch horizontal LCD, sophisticated touch screen-based multi-object position detection, and all supporting control electronics. It allows the players to engage in a new class of electronic games which combines the features of computer gaming, such as dynamic playing fields and gaming levels, with the social interaction and tangible playing pieces, such as pawns and dies, of traditional board games.

Initially aimed at the out-of-home game market such as restaurants, bars, and casinos, Entertaible has the potential to evolve into a gaming platform for the consumer market.

Tags: interactive furniture, tangible interface, ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous game

La nave e’ ormai in preda al cuoco di bordo e cio’ che trasmette al microfono del comandante non e’ piu’ la rotta, ma cio’ che mangeremo domani.

S.Kierkegaard

Thanks to Shuja and Guillaume that are kind enough to let me bug them all the time, I managed to finish the module to position the message on the map using latitude and longitude. It was hard because I had to play with three different reference systems: the canvas, the tile and finally the lat-long Mercator Projection.

To resources contributed to this little success: the first is this web site that allows you to debug a google map application, revealing the tile indexing system and the coordinates references. However, mind that the code offered as example is faulty. On a newsgroup I managed to find the good code that I am posting below. The code allow to convert a Google Map tile index, to latitude and longitude. Additionally, I converted the javascript into python 🙂

Tags: google, map algorithms, maps, Python

Continue reading →

Lyra Nikolovska’s last project is very relevant for our work on Interactive Tables. Her project is reflection on a type of social dynamics that takes place at tables during conversations. Who dominates the conversation?

Two people, seated at each end of the table, converse. As they converse, light emitting diodes (LEDs), embedded along the center of the table, are activated by their pattern of conversation. Two microphones pick up the duration and the volume of the conversation at regular intervals, and trigger light animation from the end where one speaks toward the other. If both people speak simultaneously, the lights start animating from both ends.

As in our technical solution, the table doesn’t parse nor “understand” the nature of the discourse, rather it isolates and brings forward one specific component of interaction at tables. One great point of this design is that the table does not use an “extra PC” for the computational part. Instead, there is a micro-controller embedded in the tabletop that does all the computation. The code is a couple of hundred lines.

Tags: collaboration tools, information visualization, interaction design, interactive furniture, ubiquitous computing

Cool! I was browsing google maps and I started noticing that it now covers Piedmont region, in norther Italy with vector maps! This is a great news for STAMPS …

Tags: google, map algorithms, maps

CampusBeacon is a startup of MIT building a site for campus communities. They intend to replace bulletin boards across campus and become the information center for students, faculty, etc. The website features a service called ePosters, intended to be a “myspace” for campus events and an information page for organizations both within and outside of the university.

They are interested in learning more about how you, as a potential user of ePosters, could benefit from advertising online through our service. You can take a look at a preview of ePosters. They are posing some questions to refine their service:

1. How do you advertise your events/functions on campus?

2. Do you face any difficulties advertising through your standard means (posters etc.)?

3. Do ePosters and its services seem helpful to your organization’s advertising efforts on the campus?

4. If so, how much would your organization be willing to pay for such services?

I would be interested in talking more with these guys because some of the functionalities they are designing are relevant also for ShoutSpace.

Tags: collaboration tools, graffiti, Location Based Services, tagging

Paolo Avesani pointed me on this nice web application that allows the users to share nice alpine walking itineraries. One of the main feature is the ability to see a cartographic support for the itinerary description which makes more easy to follow (although I could not find an itinerary with working map).

The list something like 700 itineraries. I would be interested in knowing some more about it.

Tags: collaboration tools, information visualization, map algorithms, maps

Yes, finally I can see that things are slowly moving forward. I am trying to complete the python port of STAMPS and somethings seems to work. Thanks to the help of Micah Dowty and Korakot Chaovavanich I managed to put together a working prototype. At the moment I enabled an annotation layer that displays a red dot on top of the Google Map tile and that allow the user to pinpoint a specific point on the tile. From here, it should be possible to implement the rest of the functionalities with a “relative” ease 🙂 .  More info soon …

While farting around the net, as Nicolas likes to say, I found this nice map which is quite astonishing. It shows the cables that have been placed under the sea to connect different countries. It is amazing to see how Africa and the North-East of Russia seems to be poorly connected with other continents. It would be actually nice to see also the terrestrials backbones.

(via)

Tags: maps, new technology