tabletop

Posts Tagged ‘tabletop’

ComforTable @ ITS 2014 Dresden

November 24, 2014 by storz in Conferences / General

Comments Off

From 16th-19th of november the ACM conference for Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (ITS) took place in Dresden. Besides the lectures the event included a poster & demo session, in which CrossWorlds members Michael Storz and Kalja Kanellopoulos presented their second tabletop ‘comforTable’.
One of the highlights of the conference was Joachim Sauter’s closing keynote. In his inspiring presentation the director of the renowned design agency ART+COM gave insights in their magnificent work with interactive surfaces and showed a number of best practice examples. Concerning the development of new technologies he emphasized: “If you work with technologies you can only predict the future if you work interdisciplinary. People have to be open to leave their fields and work together with others.” Furthermore Sauter stressed the narrative potential of interactive surfaces, linking interaction design to composition and poetry. Putting the importance of briefing and re-briefing during the process of technological development into focus, he pointed out: “All of our ideas are already in our minds. You just have to open the door.”

ComforTable @ITS2014 demo session

Exhibition MS Wissenschaft closes with 90.000 visitors

October 2, 2014 by storz in General

Comments Off

MS Wissenschaft @Linz,Austria

September 28th the exhibition “Digital Unterwegs” on the ship MS Wissenschaft finally came to an end. In total it had 90.000 visitors, among them 480 school classes. The ship stopped in 38 german and austrian cities.

CrossWorlds researchers Kalja Kanellopoulos and Michael Storz contributed a multitouch table with applications for up to six players. The support staff reported us that the table was one of the most loved and most used exhibits in the exhibition. They also stated that the exhibit fostered interaction between people who didn’t know each other before and that despite its heavy usage the exhibit was still one of the easiest to maintain. On two of the last stops in Deggendorf and Regensburg we were able to conduct a user study, which will give us further insights into the mechanics and courses of action of playful tabletop collaboration.

Despite the fact, that we are still working on the detailled results of our study, it became clear, that this project was a great success and all the hard work and support for this exhibition was worthwhile.

The table is now in refurnishment and will be presented on November 17th at the Demosession at the ACM ITS conference in Dresden.

: We visited the MS Wissenschaft in Linz on our only support trip to fix a broken USB-Hub.

: A view in the exhibition to the entrance. Table is on the lefthand side.

: 90.000 visitors leave some marks. But apart from some issues with our camera boxes, the overall construction proved to be very robust.

CrossWorlds Interactive Tabletop is touring through Germany

June 25, 2014 by storz in General

Comments Off

CrossWorlds fellows Michael Storz and Kalja Kanellopoulos contributed an interactive tabletop to the exibition-ship MS Wissenschaft. The ship is touring through Germany and Austria until 28th of september with its exhibition “Digital unterwegs”. A detailed tour plan can be found here.

The tabletop offers two applications, a turn based card game for up to four and a pong game for up to six players. Additionally the tabletop is equipped with a user tracking system which notices when new players approach the table. In front of new players a dialog automatically pops up enabling users to log into the game.

Children playing at the CrossWorlds Tabletop.
© Ilja Hendel/Wissenschaft im Dialog

MS Wissenschaft 2014 – Digital unterwegs

Crossworlds @ Studentische Medientage Chemnitz

April 29, 2014 by Madlen Wuttke in Conferences / General

Comments Off

On April 25th and 26th the 10th Studentische Medientage took place at the new auditorium building (NHG) at Technische Universität Chemnitz. In accordance with this year’s theme ‘Get Connected!’ numerous communication professionals discussed the importance of networking in lectures and workshops.

Once again the CrossWorlds team supported the conference by displaying their research projects. Amongst other examples, the second prototype table platform of Kalja Kanellopoulos and Michael Storz, presenting a card game and a game of Pong, was open to public experimentation. Currently, their second table is aboard the ship ‘MS Wissenschaft’ and travels across the rivers of Germany. Furthermore, Michael Heidt preseted a join
t human-computer exploration device and Anke Tallig tested the detection capabilities of non-verbal communication behavior by her new robot-guide installation.

And in addition to the professional audiences, the mentoring program ‘Girl’s Tandem’ visited the symposium and interacted with the various exhibitions from CrossWorlds.

The ‘Studentischen Medientage‘ are developed and organized solely by students of the Institute for Media Research at the Technische Universität Chemnitz but nevertheless established itself as a networking platform for other students and media professionals across Germany. This annual conference, established in 2005, meanwhile attracts more than 500 visitors from science and practice, in order to discuss media-relevant developments, new media perspectives and ideas.