That’s insane.

In other large thing news.

Microsoft Surface.  It would be cool it it was like affordable enough to have like, all your tables be that. End tables, coffee table, kitchen table,  various other types of tables.  One day they’ll probably be that cheap…  or something better will be that cheap.

Well Wired’s got more pictures of big ass shit, like big ass planes and an explanation of what that crazy self-balancing boat lift in Scotland is.

Wired

Microsoft’s Surface tabletop computer team has graduated from being a pet project of founder Bill Gates to a group that stands up on its own, and contributes back into other parts of Microsoft.

That is the impression that I left with after meeting with Surface General Manager of Software and User Experience Brad Carpenter this week at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week in Los Angeles. Carpenter said that Microsoft had more than four times as many partners for Surface as it did a year ago, and that the team contributed technology to Windows 7, including applications that are installed by computer makers.

While it is true that Surface hasn’t revolutionized how the world interacts with computers yet, Microsoft is very serious about the touch-screen interface. To that point, every PDC attendee received a free touch-screen laptop to write touch-screen applications with.

Silverlight 4 also allows applications to invoke Windows touch screen interfaces, so that online puzzles can become much more interactive. And that’s just the beginning.

Carpenter said that Microsoft is working with partners in over 18 markets to help them design touch screen applications that have high payback on their investment. Some of its development partners have also begun to build components for Surface applications.

At PDC, Microsoft announced that students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh designed an application that ported Dungeons and Dragons to Surface. A group of German programmers wrote an application that pulls up information from specialized designed business cards.

Some other recent deployments that he cited are with Hardrock Café, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, and Vodaphone, according to Carpenter.

Surface has momentum, and its tie into Windows 7 keeps it viable. It will remain a niche product, but its successes will help make it a much more common sight at your local mall.

In what twisted sense of reality is this necessary? In what delusional brain is this supposed to be viewed as normal? I am very sure the creation of electricity was an exciting moment in history. Sure people were thrilled when they could sit and watch their heads of state, famous actors, musicians and professional ball players through a box in their living room; but how far will we take our obsession with “advanced technology”? At what point does our conscience kick in and force us to draw the line- and to not cross over that boundary from fascination, entertainment and advancement to the destruction of humanity? Is it already too late? Have we started a trend that can no longer be contained?

I am a reasonable woman. I have no problem with most of the technologies we currently have- though some of the things we do are already what I consider “crossing that line”. When we start cloning shit, growing human embryos in laboratories to create “designer babies, leaving aborted babies on shelves to rot- that’s when I say enough is enough. Most of the technologies we have are in the name of making life enjoyable, making life easier and enhancing the overall quality of life. I am starting to not see the connection between the two. From what I see we are destroying our humanity. We are literally turning into robots. Exactly how easy do we want our lives to be? Surely you can see how overboard all of this can go.

Mattel's Mindflex, the toy that reads your brainwave activity.

It always starts out  totally innocent. We are curious by nature and are drawn to new things, things that we once thought were impossible. That innocence almost always turns into dependence. We rely on technology. Human kind has lived thousands of years without all the bells and whistles- but imagine waking up tomorrow to find all of our communications disabled. Imagine turning on your television to a blank screen on every channel. How would you react if your phone no longer worked? What would you do if your computer crashed and you didn’t back up any of your files? Better yet- something simple; imagine all of the grocery stores and banks shutting down. Could you survive?

I had toys when I was younger, I was into video games and I loved getting on our computer; but I can still look back and enjoy real memories of my childhood- time with my parents, playing outside until the streetlights came on, going on family trips, etc. We are getting to the point where we are so consumed by our gadgets and devices that it’s almost as if we don’t know how to live. How would we ever keep in touch with long distance family and friends without social networking. Oh my, we may just have to write them a letter or –gasp- go visit them or something!

I know there aren’t many people who share my sentiments- maybe you will grasp the situation when you are no longer to work, buy, sell, travel or even seek medical care without a computer chip implanted in your hand….

I’m not talking about simply cartoons, but actualy animation.  Disney recently acquired PIXAR in a strategic move to gain market share in a rapidly shrinking market position.  I do believe that the acquisition was not needed, and I don’t think it was a market growth strategy.  It was more, like, a technology acquisition one.  There are patents, probably, held by PIXAR, that Disney would have wanted.  And you can see the different output effects in the movie quality (difference) of Disney vs Pixar.

As an engineer, I’m really interested in where the industry is going.  Particularly for me, specializing in the area of optics, I have been very interested in the possibilities of alternative ways of development.  CurrentUirkly, animation involves a long-lived process of designing a cartoon from pen, scanning this into the computer, reanimating the picture using computerized color; and then drawing tweens, which show the rapid transition between frames (sometimes done by computers, sometimes done by hand).

What would the world be like, however, if the process of image development was different.  Bill Gates once envisioned development by the “speed of thought“.  What if you could control image development using your fingers?  If computers did the development using auto-colorization; auto-contrasting; auto-pixellation; automation right throughout the developmental process?  Microsoft Surface, soon-to-be-commercial is coming out soon, and software developers will soon be using tools that allow users to ubiquitiously act and react with computing tools on any… surface.  This should transform the cartooning industry, and will be an interesting development, particularly as computing power increases, with Intel’s new release of the Core i7.

Ci si guarda indietro, a quando i controller delle console Atari erano dei più che notevoli mattoni ben lontani dall’essere indistruttibili. Si guarda ad oggi, e tra Wiimote+ e il tanto atteso Project Natal non si sa dove la tecnologia è effettivamente arrivata e di cosa è dotata per darci una nuova esperienza in ambito videoludico.

Ma cosa vuole veramente il videogiocatore?

La risposta è quantomai ingarbugliata. Partiamo dai presupposti secondo i quali non vedo nel futuro progetto di casa Microsoft un sostanziale punto di svolta sotto l’argomento “esperienza”: anzi, tuttaltro vedo la cosa alquanto limitativa, e soprattutto limitata a chi ne ha condizione fisica. Parlano di innovazione, di sicuro l’impatto sul mercato sarà notevole, ma avrà i mezzi? Dopotutto, il Wiimote+ è stata sì una rivoluzione (la cui l’idea,checchè se ne dica, era vecchia, anche se male sfruttata), ma ha causato soltanto lo spostamento dei developer verso una fascia più qualunquista di persone intenzionate a passare qualche quarto d’ora davanti ai videogiochi. Risultato, oh destino beffardo, è stata la progressiva ed inesorabile decandenza del livello dei titoli e, conseguenzialmente, di vendite. Come la storia insegna, il successo dei videogiochi negli ultimi 20 anni non è certo dovuto ai casual gamers. Quindi, mi permetto di vedere il tutto in estremo negativo.

Ma qui si parla di videogiochi: sappiamo tutti che dopo ogni boss di fine livello c’è sempre una nuova mappa (suvvia, siamo larghi di vedute) tutta da esplorare, con i suoi mostri un tantino più ostici da combattere ma tanti nuovi segreti.

Riusciamo a comprendere la grande tecnologia del Surface, il tavolo interattivo della Microsoft, mostrato anche all’ultimo E3 e, pare, in un futuro non troppo lontanoaccessibile anche a buona parte dei privati? Sommariamente semplice, un tavolo/schermo ad alta definizione ed interattivo. Inutile sottolineare, il sogno degli amanti dei titoli strategici.

Eppure…

Ci si prospetta dinanzi la tecnologia di controllo mentale: è già un po’ che aleggia sul mercato videoludico il NIA (Neural Impulse Actuator), aggeggino della OCZ Tecnology in grado di decodificare onde neurali per il controllo delle applicazioni. Ma il NIA è in realtà solo uno dei vari dispositivi attualmente in sviluppo avanzato, è quella l’unica strada verso nuove esperienze al momento.

Sulla rete esistono parecchi rumor che vogliono la versione 2.0 dell’ammiraglia di casa Nintendo (N.d.R.: per i profani, la Wii) principalmente usufruttrice di questa nuova tecnologia; tuttavia, si sarebbe più propensi a pensare ad una generazione ancora successiva, ma esempi di controllo neurale sono già in coltivazione per l’attuale Wii, quindi niente di così avveniristico.

Ovviamente, non oso minimamente immaginare possibili sviluppi futuri in merito.

Personalmente, e qui concludo,  essendo un videogiocatore della vecchia guardia credo che un controller in mano valga più di mille pensieri quando si tratta di spegnere il cervello per giocare. E voi?

Standing Stones is meant to be a blog about technology.  Just as the ring at Stonehenge was a marvel of technology for its time, so too, the internet’s impact on modern society.  I can’t help but want to contribute in some small way to this phenomenon.  What then, of this blog?  Well, building on the Standing Stones theme, I thought I would write a quick note about a brick-and-mortar, but not just any store.  The store… You know the one everyone has talked about.  The Microsoft Store at the Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall.

I actually had the opportunity to travel to Phoenix last week for a business conference.  Upon hopping off the plane from Toronto, I headed to the Scottsdale Fashion Square.  After all, business could wait.  Anyhow, the store itself is pretty non-descript.  If it weren’t filled with PC’s, Zunes and Windows 7 versions, you’d think you were in an Apple Store.  Honestly, the stuff and the staff were nice, and if you’re in the area it’s worth checking out, but don’t make any special trips.  Everything there is available online or at some other computer retailer. 

One thing worth noting is that if you do make the trip, take some time to familiarize yourself with the Microsoft Surface technology.  It’s worth it, and I believe as the novelty diminishes, so too might the price point.  As a result, this technology will only become more pervasive in a short period of time, and the fancy touchscreen-tables are there at the Microsoft store in abundance.  The only thing I was tempted to buy was the Zune HD.  It would be a bit of a showpiece in Canada, since they’re not sold here.  Ultimately, I decided not to pick it up.  The Zune Marketplace in Canada leaves too much to be desired.

Lastly, I just finished reading ”Six Pixels Of Separation” by Mitch Joel.  Standing Stones is the result.  Thank you.

Kind of a lame application for it (sellin’ cars), but this interface could be really sick. Wonder if it will ever become a PC replacement or if it’s destiny will remain mostly in commercial/marketing applications?

http://emergingexperiences.com/2009/09/audi-car-configurator-on-surface/

Microsoft telah menciptakan teknologi Tabletop atau yang dinamakan Microsoft Surface, sebuah coffee-table yang berbentuk seperti komputer, yang mampu merespon sentuhan dan bar code khusus yang dimasukkan dari objek setiap harinya. Mesin tersebut telah dirilis Microsoft pada konferensi teknologi di Carlsbad, Calif, dan nantinya akan diaplikasikan ke T-Mobile USA dan properti-nya akan dipegang oleh Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.dan Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.
Microsoft Surface menganut prinsip Vista yang kaya akan warna, dibalik dasar  meja yang berwarna shinny black. Meja tersebut memiliki ukuran 30 inch dan layar touchscreen dalam frame acrylic yang jernih. Terdapat lima kamera yang memiliki sensitivitas dekat objek yang ada di antara layar. User dapat berinteraksi dengan teknologi Tabletop tersebut dengan menyentuhnya atau men-drag jemarinya dan objek seperti melukis sebuah foto atau gambar dalam layar, atau membuat item di dunia nyata menjadi label bar code spesial di atas meja tersebut.
Tidak seperti touchscreen lainnya, Microsoft Surface dapat merespon lebih dari satu sentuhan yang dilakukan secara bersamaan. Mark Bolger, Direktur Marketing Surface Computing Group, telah mendemonstrasikan teknologi Tabletop tersebut dengan menekankan satu jarinya ke layar paint palette meja tersebut, lalu men-drag hingga terbentuk wajah yang tersenyum. Kemudian, ia menggunakan 10 jarinya sekali lagi untuk menggambar wajah, lengkap dengan kepala dan rambut.
Kemudian Bolger juga menaruh sebuah kartu kredit dengan bar code yang mengarah ke permukaan layar meja Surface tersebut. Lalu tiba-tiba muncul foto digital yang keluar dari kartu kredit ke layar. Beberapa orang kemudian mendapatkan foto tersebut keluar dari kartu kredit hanya dengan menggunakan jemari-nya, untuk merotasi gambar dalam lingkaran ataupun menarik foto dari sudut untuk memperbesar gambar. Bolger mengungkapkan kelebihan Microsoft Surface yakni interaksi langsung, multi-touch, multi-user, dan Identifikasi objek yang tepat dan akurat.

Microsoft Surface juga dapat digunakan untuk para pelanggan yang ingin membeli ponsel. Hanya dengan meletakkan handphone ke layar meja, Surface akan membaca bar code dan menampilkan informasi mengenai ponsel tersebut. Pelanggan juga dapat memilih nomor telepon yang akan dipanggil dan ringtone dengan men-drag icon menuju ponsel. Para tamu yang ada di Hotel Starwood juga dapat menggunakan Microsoft Surface yang berteknologi Tabletop tersebut untuk membeli lagu yang dibayar via credit card atau reward card dengan bar code. Di hotel, pelanggan juga dapat memesan makanan dan minuman, lalu meletakkan bill pembayaran dengan men-drag kartu kredit atau ruang kunci dan meletakkan menu yang dipesan ke ‘dalam‘ credit card.
Teknologi Tabletop atau yang disebut Microsoft Surface memiliki harga yang cukup mahal yakni antara USD 5.000 hingga USD 10.000 per unit. Untuk sekarang, Microsoft telah membuat hardware Surface sendiri dan hanya memiliki enam software yang diberikan oleh pengembang software sebagai tool yang digunakan untuk membangun aplikasi Surface.

Rick over at South Florida Daily Blog posted a viral video about the ROLLTOP and asked if this is the future of laptops. His post got me wondering about the future of everything. It reminds me of how a typical conversation with a stranger turns to various technologies just because that’s how we are taught to converse by society. “Hi I’m Edwin.” “Hi Edwin, what do you do?” It never fails to happen. So whenever someone that is not as tech inclined as I am asks, I inevitably blow their mind by the lone virtue that we as geeks in all of our various industries handle technologies that most people do not know exist. The concept of home automation alone does something to the brain of people when you explain it. You can not believe the amount of people who still think running dual monitors is something special. Especially so in South Florida.

I don’t know what kind of demographic reads my blog, but I know someone does. So here is the first in an ongoing series that will showcase new and interesting concepts as I find them. Keep in mind that a lot of these posts will be showing off concepts, so that means a overwhelming majority of what I show will never happen. It’s just the nature of things. For our first example we are going to discuss video games, a subject near to my heart. But the future of video gaming is far too broad of a subject to cover so let’s focus on one particular example of how we as players might be interacting with some games in the future and other applications for user interaction.

R.U.S.E. was unveiled in this concept video seven months ago.

Imaginations and speculations ran wild because it was not that long before that Microsoft unveiled their own touch based system, titled Microsoft Surface. Surface is almost identical to what was shown in the trailer. Gamers and geeks everywhere buzzed on forums with thoughts of how it would work in games. None of us actually thought it would ever be done. Then this showed up online.

Developer Eugen Systems actually took R.U.S.E. and gave it support for multi-touch based interfaces. With one effort they made me seriously consider spending $12,500 on a MS Surface system. Here is one more video of the Surface system and R.U.S.E. in action.

Now, Ubisoft releases an official trailer showing off built in support for multi-touch devices as long as you are running Windows 7.

Seeing as the overwhelming majority of us can not afford a MS Surface, what will we be playing R.U.S.E. on? Newegg has 33 touch screen monitors listed. Prices start at $370 for a 15″ old school CRT. But if you want a 19″ flat panel be ready to shell out $540 and above. Consider it the early adopters fee. Well, the demand has increased and we should be seeing supply increase as well. Albatron has a nice 22″ LCD multi-touch display for $450 and they just announced a 42″ version.

Now let’s move beyond the game. What other practical applications can we think of? The obvious one would be to use it in military. Just replace the video game with real world data from satellites, RATS, Land Warrior, the Navy’s Command Center and much more. Well someone took it to heart and the Navy actually has a working concept.

The Navy's Command Center of the Future

Education is another big sector that can work well with a multi-touch system. We know most schools won’t be able to afford them, but you can see them in a museum, assuming the school can afford to take kids to the museum these days.

Ideum, which popped out a rather gigantic MT2 multitouch table earlier this year, is now introducing another model that makes that fellow look like child’s play. The 100-inch MT-50 is an outright beast, boasting 86 viewable inches, a 16 x 5 aspect ratio and a stunning 2,304 x 800 resolution. It was engineered for the Space Chase Gallery at the Adventure Science Center, which is one of several high-tech exhibits the company has deployed at the Nashville, TN-based science center. The table itself can support over 50 simultaneous touch points, and while the Flash-based software is obviously tailored for learning applications, there’s nothing stopping this thing from becoming the world’s next great arcade fixture. Hop on past the break for a drool-worthy vid.

The possibilities for application are endless. Nuclear plant techs can have it instant access to a lot more information on one of these tables than a traditional computer and monitor. Traffic controllers in LA would probably kill for this, as well as major metropolitan transit controllers for the NY Subway system or London Underground. Most of the submarines in the US Navy already have touch screen, but they are simple single touch similar to what you see pilots using in the Air Force. Imagine a disaster recovery scenario where every asset out in the field could be tracked with GPS and FEMA can co-ordinate every single asset with the table. You start to imagine maps with layered information similar to what you see in the R.U.S.E. trailers. Like I said, the possibilities are endless. It’s just up to someone to pay for the hardware and software.

Seeing as the iPhone/iPod Touch is pretty much the first mass market product that support multi-touch interfaces, users are not going to have that big of a problem using it. The true challenge is programming applications that support and take advantage of the system. Development teams will either be split up into specific teams for each type of interface, touch and traditional, or have extended development time. Companies will need to take greater risks in the short term to adequately gain experience in multi-touch UI design and programming so as to capitalize on that experience in the future. I would love to pick the brain of R.U.S.E.’s developer, Eugen Systems on how they are handling the addition of touch UI into their game development.

Feel free to share you thoughts in the comment section on how multi-touch user interfaces can be used in the various industries.

La nouvelle technologie de Microsoft !

Estudantes de Carnegie Mellon criaram uma versão do jogo Dungeons & Dragons para o Microsoft Surface, ajudando a entendermos qual a utilidade deste produto, que cá entre nós não é tão baratinho assim.

A apresentação do jogo no Surface pode ser conferido no vídeo abaixo:

It’s been a busy week at HowStuffWorks.com. On top of the normal schedule of podcasting, live shows, blog posts and articles, we’ve also experienced the joy of upgrading the software on our computers. Immediately following that came the traditional 45-minute where-the-heck-did-they-put-copy-and-paste ritual. Then there was a building-wide fire drill that disrupted us for an hour or so. Oh, and there’s the guest appearances.

On Tuesday, Randall Bennett invited me on TechVi to discuss the new line of Apple products that hit stores this week. Yesterday, Chris and I sat down for a phone interview with Chuck from Galactic Watercooler. We talked about Carl Sagan, Cosmos, the Voyager program and science fiction. The episode should be up later this weekend — definitely check it out. They run a fun show and have had some really interesting guests on in the past.

On top of all that, we also published two new episodes of TechStuff! You remember TechStuff — it’s the show with electrolytes (it’s what plants crave). This week, our shows focused on two related topics: touch-screen technology and the Zune personal media player.

Touch screens are popping up everywhere. From ATMs to smartphones, they are leading the way in the field of user interfaces. Chris and I talk about the two major types of touch screens found in personal electronics: resistive and capacitive screens. We explain the system used by the Microsoft Surface. And I go off on a tangent as I postulate what might happen should touch screens ever develop sentience.

Wednesday’s show focused on the Microsoft Zune personal media player. A few readers have pointed out that I made a mistake in the show. I talk about the Zune Pass, a music subscription service. For about $15 a month, you can download an unlimited number of approved songs from the Zune Marketplace. I explained that if you let your subscription lapse, you lose all the music you downloaded through Zune Pass. That’s mostly true, but I left out an important part of the subscription — Microsoft allows you to download 10 songs per month that you get to keep forever. When your subscription lapses, you’ll still have access to those songs. You’ll still lose the other songs that you downloaded through the service. My thanks go out to the listeners who wrote in to set us straight.

That wraps up another exciting week in the world of TechStuff. Remember that podcast episodes publish on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Tuesdays you can tune in here at the blogs at 1:00 p.m. Eastern to see Chris and me in action on TechStuff Live.

And of course you can learn more about the topics we discuss at our amazing Web site, HowStuffWorks.com:

How do touch-screen monitors know where you’re touching?
How does the Zune compare to iPod?
How Podcasting Works

Let me start off by saying that I realize that this video is a tech demo for Microsoft Surface’s gaming applications, and that this program is not necessarily under development for the consumer market.  Now watch this video.  WARNING: Have a change of pants nearby!  Yours might become soiled.

When I see this video I get super giddy with excitement. 

And not just at the pretty animations and Minority Report-esque menu control.  I, as a lover of the art of DMing, get crazy excited about the game-enhancing capabilities of such a setup.  Or maybe I should say game-streamlining capabilities.  Either way, I know what I mean.

No more waiting for players to sit there figuring out what the range on their powers is.  No more triple-tracing my monsters steps to make sure they successfully avoid all hazards and opportunity attacks.  Players can see all regular options for movement, powers, magic items, skills, etc. right there on their gorgeous little touch screen menu wheel. 

And not to mention the incredible possibilities for downloadable published adventures: professional quality audio narration, video and artwork with background music to introduce NPC’s and set the tone and mood, and dungeon grids from which the DM can hide details and reveal them at his discretion.  Supplemental functions would be limited by the imaginations of the programmers.

And that’s where the giddiness stops.

When I see all this fantastic technology melding with the realms of RPG’s, from MMO games, to real-time Twitter campaigns, to playing D&D online through the Insider, I can’t help but wonder if all this is actually stunting our imaginations a bit.  Occasionally it feels a little like these various tools and programs are giving us less incentive to think outside the box, simply because they make thinking inside the box so much easier. 

Technology like this raises questions.  How will house rules be incorporated?  To what extent will the applications support user-generated content, like monsters, paragon paths, and magic items?  Will the DM have the option to override the programming to bend the rules a bit in certain situations?  For a moment, I get a little concerned about things like this.

Then I go back to squealing with glee.  Thoughts?  Opinions?

I love being able to quote Back to the Future, not only is it an awesome film but it is an awesome film to quote.

Anyway, the odd title is because today I have been musing on the far, far future of Dungeons & Dragons and how technology will later the way we play.

My good friend Oz (of Touch Sensitive) linked me to the following;

Surfacescapes Demo Walkthrough from Visual Story TAs on Vimeo.

I’m not too hot on following new technology, but from what I understand this is the new Microsoft Surface, their next step in touch-screen technology. It has a lot of nifty things like object recognition and so forth.

The video above shows some guys who have built a very cool, WIP, environment in which to play D&D with. Using the object recognition of the surface, as well as quite a basic idea of grid maps and animations to create interactive battle mats, this system provides a pretty new and rather involved way of playing D&D.

Watching the video, I love the idea of a “control” object that identifies itself for a specific character and then uses a cool radial menu for their abilities. I like seeing the cool magic effects taking place on the table map itself (although a suggestion would be to remove the grid lines for players and instead just have them snap-to it).

I do have to wonder what our friends at WoTC think. Would this take business away from them? Is the thought of digital minis and tilesets something that worries them? Or would they simply expand into this themselves? Producing digital copies of the Dungeon Tiles, D&D Minis and perhaps even add-ons for the Surface system itself. Perhaps the long awaited Digital Tabletop that WoTC hinted at with the release of D&D Insider would be well suited to this environment.

–

All of this got me thinking about the FAR future.

Technology is advancing at quite a rapid rate and Video Games are not shy about getting on board. Will traditional gaming follow suit?

One thing that really excites me is the possibility for Augmented Reality. This technology is already being produced and being used in various sectors and I don’t think it’s long before it hits the gaming industry. For those who don’t know the basic principal is around devices that “augment” the real world with digital improvements.

For example, you could be wearing a pair of special glasses that work as normal but when you look at somebody with a special identifier (say a badge or token) it instead displays them as a digital avatar. Of course, the technology isn’t quite there yet but it’s not that far off!

Image from www.nineteenfortyone.com

In relation to D&D and Fantasy gaming, I see it adding something to either the table (digital minis that actually fight/animate) or even to live action. Imagine a D&D system based around reality where you are actually throwing digital fireballs or wielding bows with your friends, fighting digital monsters. It’s kinda like taking everything back to where all this stuff came from; little kids playing pretend in the backyard/garden pretending that your parents precious Tree/Sculpture was actually a monster you had to fight to save the day.

If you wanna read more on Augmented Reality; you can do so… here!

But, maybe this is all taking the hobby in a direction too far away from it’s roots. Maybe with all the Dungeon Tiles, Minis and other accessories available we are losing a sense of the imagination that the game was born from. Maybe it really *is* becoming the “board game” of Tabletop Roleplaying…

What do you guys think?

Personally, I think stuff like Tiles and Minis will never take away from the core of the hobby and technology will just make it more and more accessible for people.

That’s all from me tonight I think.

As always guys, any feedback for the site or what you’d like to see me talk about let me know. Once I have got my house all sorted out I am going to be able to sit down and write some articles on writing Adventures, show off my minis and etc. Also, I am hoping to do a Podcast at some point, possibly taking you through my creation process for my games.

~M

A new demo using Microsoft Surface and ArcGIS Server from the ESRI’s Application Prototype Lab.

“The following demonstration uses the Surface to display a map of an area and instructs a remote mapping server to perform intensive suitability analysis.  The parameters for the analysis are on the right hand side of the screen and the results are displayed on the left.  This demonstrates how the Surface can be used to perform “what if” environmental analysis.”

source: http://gisandscience.com/2009/10/20/greenprint-priority-for-microsoft-surface-new-demo-from-esris-application-prototype-lab/

If I only had $10K and knew one of the huge brains behind this prototype over at Carnegie Melon University.  The above video is a demo of D&D being played on Microsoft’s touchscreen table called Surface.  I can’t say I’m a fan of the dice rolling animation and how I could make a sandwich, eat it, and read War & Peace by the time it’s done rolling, but it’s definitely interesting. 

The program was made by a team called Surfacescapes that is part of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Melon.

My brother is currently doing his masters in Entertainment Technology at CMU. There he’s part of a team creating a Dungeons and Dragons game for the Microsoft Surface. Check out what they have done so far. Enjoy.

Christmas hasn’t started yet but I start it now – with a free piece of software from Siemens. It’s called POIBrowser (“Point Of Interest Browser”) and it’s more than a Bing Maps showcase!

POIBrowser offers Bing Maps on a Surface and lets you quickly navigate to preconfigured Points Of Interest (tourist attractions, subway stations, offices of your company, etc…). For demonstration purposes the default configuration shows a bunch of Siemens offices in Vienna, Austria. However, you can easily put your own targets onto the map and add a thumbnail picture plus text.

After installation check out the Data folder and find the Sites.xml. Each site has a set of properties including the site name, address, description, picture and last but not least the site coordinates!

POIBrowser includes a geocoding module. This module connects to a Microsoft MapPoint Web Service to translate a specified address into coordinates. The geocoding module requires a MapPoint Developer Account which you supply via the POIBrowser.exe.config file. If you don’t have such an account and you don’t want to create one (it’s free!), you have to supply the site coordinates manually for each site. For more details please read the Readme file included in the download package.

Download Siemens POIBrowser here!

Hoje em dia, o que está na moda é sem dúvida o Touch. Mas esta tecnologia já não é recente, que o diga a Microsoft, que já vende mesas Surface desde 2001.
Mas foi talvez a febre provocada pelo iPhone da Apple, e a aproximação repentina entre os Smartphones e os Pocket PC, que democratizou o Touch.
Por menos de 100€, qualquer pessoa pode ter esta tecnologia num vulgar telemóvel. Mas é nos computadores, que esta melhora significativamente a experiência. Mas ainda há muito por fazer: