Twice this week I’ve stumbled across interfaces which I’ve found irresistible and blog-worthy. The first is PicLens (not brand new this week - but certainly within living memory ie: several months). The second is the Zoomii interface for browsing Amazon books.

PicLens is a Firefox 3.0 plugin which allows you to navigate through sites such as Flickr, YouTube, Photobucket, MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo, Google and this week Amazon in 3d. When you enable PicLens, images and videos appear in an almost 3d infinite wall which re-sizes and zooms according to the velocity of your click n’ drag. (It’s so responsive that it gives me motion sickness…) When you click on a thumbnail, the interface becomes 2d while the image zooms up and resolves itself, quite rapidly, into higher res. The whole experience seems a lot faster than navigating a space like Flickr in a regular browser. This may have something to do with the ability to see more images simultaneously, in an environment which mimics our visual perspective in the “real” world. I like not least because I feel it assumes an intelligence in the participant/user.

Like Piclens zoomii offers a click and drag interface, but without the 3d immersion. Zoomii utilises many of the same navigation metaphors as Google Maps, so it’s instantly familiar that way. The attraction here, is the ability to browse books almost as if one were in a physical bookshop. It’s a welcome move away from the functional, yet incredibly dry visual environment of a regular Amazon page. Currently zoomii offers only a couple of hundred thousand titles from which to choose (quite a lot really).

Both interfaces prompted me to reflect upon the satisfaction factor in design. For me, both successfully deliver a satisfying experience for the viewer/user/audience, well beyond offering mere eye-candy or a distracting toy. It is genuinely pleasurable using both interfaces because they work at a practical and an intuitive level. They help close the gap between perception and experience, removing that “arms-length” feeling one sometimes has when navigating a space. It somehow physicalises navigation bringing us into greater intimacy with the content. I’m sure that this is only the beginning of a general swing towards more “physicalised” spaces no doubt influenced by the rise of virtual worlds, MMPORG’s and the rapid spread of multi-touch interfaces generally.

Heads-up on the zoomii interface via information aesthetics and Ars Technica

Image: Mike Rohde

With the US economy described as being in “free fall”, the 3rd SEED conference held in Chicago a couple of weeks ago on 6 June, may be for some, a beacon of optimism in an otherwise bleak and stormy landscape. It was a small, one day affair which apparently attracted a (mostly male) audience of around 300 or so. The message appears to have been simple: “Take creative ideas and turn them into something SATISFYING & BANKABLE” - in other words, do what really fires you up.

Among the guest speakers were Carlos Segura, founder for the digital type foundry T26, Jason Fried of 37 signals, Jake Nickell and Jeffrey Kalmikoff of the über successful Threadless T-shirt community and the apparently mad (but rich and getting richer every day) Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine TV Library (who was apparently “kidnapped” on the day by Melissa Pierce of Life In Perpetual Beta fame - for fun). Of note, is that most of these guys didn’t go to business school and the common philosophy they share is that we should all be ready to “fail as much as possible”. Nickell and Kalmikoff also share the rule of “crowdsourcing” where content is community created, the community manages and grows itself and the community is ultimately rewarded.

Gary Vaynerchuk declares “Now, is the beginning of the gold rush in personal branding. . .”

Via: rohdesign, 37signals

Described by it’s creators as the “first step in an ongoing social experiment, based on twitter inspired by wefeelfine and drawing data from summize“, Twistori is a real time visualiser which displays tweets containing the words love, hate, think, believe, feel and wish. It has a much narrower focus than wefeelfine which visualises a massive spectrum of human emotions drawn from the blogosphere and then offers a number of beautiful, kaleidoscopic views. Twistori is still worth a mention for its visual simplicity and the lovely, incidental poetry borne out of the immediacy and spontaneity of the Tweets.

Electronic Engineer Tina Lymberis trades in the circuit board for a camera and microphone. After 12 years of gruelling study and work in fields she had no interest in, Tina found her calling in television production. This was cemented once accepted into the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in 2006. Her AFTRS lecturer, Louise Clarke says: “Combine an ideas powerhouse with the latest knowledge in TV training, add a generous splash of boundless enthusiasm and you have Tina Lymberis: a recipe for success.”

Working as the Head of Video Production with iPRIME through 2007, Tina had a platform to leverage her many years of management experience and delve into the world of online production. Coupled with her passion and enthusiasm for dance, the only logical path was to produce üBERgroover.tv. iPRIME CEO, Tony Surtees affirms: “Really great media finds a way to engage across cultures and connect people…ü̈BERgroover.tv does that by reaching that something in all of us which really “connects” with our emotions. It curls the corner of your mouth, tugs at your heart and brings a tap to your toes. It’s music, it’s community, it’s tribal.”

The first season starts 6pm, 25 June 2008 and consists of 20 Australian made webisodes (each four to six minutes in duration) released weekly via http://www.ubergroover.tv. The show includes everyday people sharing their stories and favourite dance moves. Having grown up in a Greek-Australian household, Tina felt that “Australians need dances that connect them to the diverse constituents of their culture”.

Audiences can create grooves that represent modern Australian culture through “groovemaker”, a tool which incorporates the latest online interactive technology. It allows anyone to combine dance-moves and music, using their web browser, to choreograph their own routines. Gary Hayes, Director of LAMP declares: “ü̈BERgroover.tv is a good example of where collaborative entertainment is heading. It is about community created content in perfect synergy with the intention of the original creators - it is also a great deal of fun! LAMP is delighted with this launch”.

“üBERgroover.tv fuses user created content with professional production values and interactive tools to provide immersive entertainment; a perfect recipe, considering viewers are getting tired of watching stand-alone amateur content, but still wanting to show themselves off”, concludes Ms Lymberis. “Viewers hold the future of propelling Australian dance culture in the click of their mouse.”

Media contact: Tina Lymberis +61 402 123 933 tina@mediarize.com

Good luck from all the LAMP team and keep on ‘grooving’!

“Is there a market for feature-length films on the mobile phone?” I asked Tomas Gewecke, new President of Digital Distribution for Warner Bros., at the US Mobile Entertainment Forum Conference MEFCON last week.

You’d think, by the audience reaction, that I just confessed to running over his dog.

Warner cut a deal recently with Sprint Nextel Corp., where they’re placing selected films on the Sprint Movies deck. Stopping short of revealing numbers, Tom was enthusiastic about the growth prospects for this category. His colleague, Maria Seidman, said that Warner Bros. has seen “incredible results” from the Sprint deal.

And that’s when the crowd kicked in.

MEFCON had a text-to-screen setup for Q&A, and posts starting going up in the flavor of, “I can’t believe people are still asking that question!” and “Mobile is the biggest platform!”

Well, to the second point, yes it is. As Tom put it, “The installed base of video-capable phones will continue to be the single largest platform on which a consumer can watch video.” But let’s look at the carrier business model.

Mobile operators are in a pickle right now: Voice is a flat-to-declining business, and the growth curve for SMS is flattening out. So naturally carriers are looking to push data services–which aligns well with the emergence of the consumer-focused smartphone (inspired by so many teens texting, and all of the Web surfing happening on the iPhone).

With an a-la-carte model, though, it gets way too expensive for non-business mobile users. So now you’re seeing $99 all-you-can-eat plans (mainly for voice and text, but some now with data), which I think is a fantastic way to package it–fostering necessary growth in key areas like mobile search and location-based services (LBS).

But here’s the catch: In putting a cap–and a low cap at that–on pricing, you need to strictly limit the amount of data that actually gets tapped by users. Otherwise the network will get too “heavy,” and performance everywhere will lag. After a point, in fact, the carriers will start losing money if network operating costs start outstripping the revenue generated by that usage.

Now consider a feature-length film being streamed. That’s a massive amount of data being transferred. To make it work, you need a strong signal and really good network speed. Given today’s mobile infrastructure, how many people can realistically be doing this at once and have the network be able to support it?

Of course, if you can get the movie you want on your phone as part of a plan you’ve already paid for, you’ll forgive the tiny screen. (And even then, I’m still not persuaded there’s enough hour-and-a-half commutes out there for this to really take off). But, to scale up, you’d have to be paying box-office prices, if not more, to get a teeny-tiny version of Speed Racer on the phone. And isn’t half the value of movies today in all of the special effects? How big can a bang really be on a RAZR? (Plus most phone batteries would die well before the last explosion).

No, in the medium- to semi-long term, it’s still going to be all about short-form content. The phone is great for sports highlights, news clips, and little “snack video” features. Heck, that’s still the bulk of video consumption online–where bandwidth is no longer the main issue. And this is the kind of content all these new “micro-networks” are churning out, and where branded entertainment is playing…

Anyway, I think this scenario shows how amazingly complicated the mobile space really is. Trying to get content creators to work with carriers, to align with handset makers, to accommodate application developers, to leverage off-deck publishers… It’s a mess.

But I guess that’s why I still get to ask stupid questions.

Did you know that there is a move to create a “dot.car” top level domain name? In my opinion this is significant. This is significant in that the perspective of the car as a utilitarian platform (wheels, motor, Bluetooth holster and iPod amplifier) is changing into a content centric platform (think part of content strategy). There is a general recognition, much like that with the dot.TV, dot.Mobi, that the uniqueness of this platform requires its own particular means of delivering content, interfacing with this content and creating standards around the environment in which the content lives. The car-network will need its own protocols and standards. It will need this to effectively utilise such communication-centric, real-time data as vehicle performance and maintenance diagnostics data, as well as vehicle location data (think location based services) and content transmission. Firewalls that protect your ability to seamlessly interface with the web and potentially with your network at home. There are clearly implications for auto manufacturers, marketers and content players.

Content and the car are on the move …will you be ready?

The quality of the graphics for an MMOG is very good and one reason for its success may indeed be that the character rendering (remember this is real time social gaming) is starting to approach PC or Console ’solo’ games - well it seems to be 3/4 years behind but catching fast. The story environment itself is very NWN crossed with a traditional medieval sim but with WoW type gameplay and by all accounts very graphic and violent reconstructions of barbaric scenarios - I hope that is not the main reason we are seeing this flood to try the game. More from the PR machine after the video.

From gamesindustry biz

Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan is one of the fastest selling PC games of all time. More than 400.000 gamers have entered Hyboria over the last few days, with almost half coming from the North American market. This amazing figure for a PC game shows that the positive pre-order trend has transferred into actual sales, and people from all over the world are now flocking to the most savage, sexy and brutal MMO ever created.

Over the weekend an astounding amount of concurrent gamers were logged on to the game, making Age of Conan one of the busiest MMOs in the western hemisphere. With stock flying out of several retail chains, Funcom expects the number to increase in the days to come. In addition to the many gamers logging in, there was also substantial traffic to the Age of Conan websites, with more than 2,2 million unique visitors during the last ten days.

As a result of the great launch, players and press have been raving about the unique qualities of the game, and the first 20 reviews give Age of Conan an average score above 90%. The first US reviews are also live, with Gamezone.com giving the game an Editor’s Choice Award, a 9.4 of 10 score, while heralding Age of Conan as a “Benchmark MMO”. Sci-Fi.com was also an early mover and gave the game a straight A, stating that “If Robert E. Howard had been a game designer.., this is the Conan he would have invented.”

“The initial sales and reviews are very encouraging, and it’s great to see that so many are enjoying Age of Conan,” said Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “This is just the beginning, and we already look forward to massive updates and cool new features. We believe our focus on making Conan unique and groundbreaking is a key reason for the initial success. This is a focus we will keep and reinforce, and players can expect continued quality and innovation as we enter a new era for the game.”

To quote their own advertising -

Lumosity users have experienced:

• Clearer and quicker thinking
• Improved memory for names, numbers, directions, etc
• Increased alertness and awareness
• Elevated mood
• Better concentration at work or while driving

The personally challenging element (and therefore urge to use it) for those over 30 is this particular game sampled 40 000 people who used the 7 day trial and the embedded chart below demonstrates how our cognitive functions (memory, processing speed and attention) start to deteriorate…time to train that brain, up,down,in,out…2,3,4…spot the missing object…2,3,4…

As you age your brain slows down, your memory goes, and your attention lapses. Online brain fitness games like Lumosity sell the promise of stopping that decline. But as the chart below shows, it is all downhill after 30. (The chart is based on the brain performance index scores of 40,000 Lumosity users). Lumosity lets members play games designed to improve their memory, processing speed, and attention.

I’ve tried the games, and they are rather satisfying. One requires you to locate a bird that appears on the screen for a split second, while at the same time identifying a letter that flashes elsewhere on the screen. (It’s harder than it sounds). Others include a maze memory game and a symbol-matching one. Members pay $10 a month, with a free, 7-day trial.

It would seem that multi-touch interfaces are the new black. In any case - they’re really really popular. They’re popping up like mushrooms all over the place with companies like Microsoft and Apple in a mad race to get devices/concepts to market. Ken Han introduced the genius of his multi-touch interfaces to a rapt crowd at TED in 2006. Smaller enterprises such as Italy’s IO are having an excellent time mapping interfaces on any surface which springs to mind. The reason for multi-touch popularity may be that it’s an incredibly intuitive way to build an interface and a really satisfying, nay joyful (fancy that), experience for the user/audience/content creator. I can attest to this experience now that I am the proud owner of an iPhone. Quite often I find myself playing with the interface without performing any function whatsoever - how often do you find yourself doing that on your average mobile device?

But what if your dream is to prototype a multi-touch project but you don’t have the resources to start from scratch? I stumbled across TouchKit when I was checking out a story on a giant ceiling clock and suddenly found myself getting reacquainted with the work of eyebeam and a whole slew of folk out there experimenting at a grass roots level.

Eyebeam is a creativity incubator offering “state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation…where artists and technologists actively engage with culture”. Eyebeam supports and offers open source projects from its own project (Atelier) workshops. One of Eyebeam’s “Atelier” projects is is a modular multitouch development kit called Touchkit developed by New York based studio NOR_/D. Touchkit aims to make multitouch source code readily available as open source and is a sister project of the CUBIT multitouch system, aimed at implementing rapid development of multitouch projects. It uses eyebeam’s openFrameworks, a soon-to-be-released C++ library for creative coding which underpins the whole shebang.

Further to eyebeam I discovered a story about a 17 year old boy in the US who has managed to create the first OSX multi-touch table, made possible in part at least by an open source project called OpenTouch which grew out of Google’s summer of Code. Good to see organisations facilitating the development of creative technology at a grass roots level. Even more interesting to see what really fires developers and designers up. There’s a growing passion for “natural interaction” - a dissolution between human interaction and the machine. If you want to get a quick review of some current multi-touch projects in development - hop over to the Natural Users Interface group (NUI) for a quick RE-view.