Talking with your Hands: Control your iPhone remotely

Imagine using an iPhone in the palm of your hand. Now, do it again but put the phone away.

Using a depth perceptive camera, researchers are able to allow people to use their iPhones remotely. People can tap their palms, swipe or perform other gestures captured by a depth-sensitive video camera. The signals are transmitted to the iPhone using a WiFi radio and the actions are performed in realtime.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37611/

Imagine allowing people to use a personal phone or public kiosk by interacting with either themselves (palm touch) or more subtle means, such as voice or other “natural” gestures. We are no longer tethered to the device.

Contributed by Kevin Jeong

iAd and AdMob Galleries

Apple recently released an iAd gallery to the App store where you can get some examples of the latest and greatest iAds to interact with & show creatives.

And if you’re on Android, AdMob has an app for you too.

Taste The Rainbow

It always stands out when a brand actually finds an interactive way to interact with their audience. I think this one works because it’s such a simple idea, that you almost feel like you’re acting in the video. There’s nothing to click, nothing to drag or drop, just a simple action of touching your screen. There’s something that we miss online, that we used to have with print ads where when we held the tactile ad it brought us closer to the brand. This is a new approach to “touching the brand.” I’ve seen a few people pull their hand back once the ad is down and say, “ew!” with a smile. That’s what makes it great. Simple advertising, playing off the brands tag line. It’s no wonder this has gone viral so quickly!

Contributed by Lindsay Siegel

via mashable

X&Y Light Object

X&Y is the new brainchild from Australian lighting designer Flynn Talbot. The glowing, globe-like object responds to touch, casting different shades of colored, ambient light depending on the way the user manipulates it.

via Triangulation Blog

BendDesk

Innovative furniture design that adds a new kind of flexibility and touch capability to the workspace, created by the Media Computing Group at RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany.

Via Laughing Squid

Projeqt: A Creative Storytelling Platform

Projeqt aims to enable people to share their stories by providing a simple way to create a website viewable on any device. TBWA created the publishing tool and used it to build their own website.

The Future of the Book

IDEO’s vision of the Future of the Book.

via Laughing Squid

The Future of Screen Technology

TAT has produced another video demonstrating the potential future of screen technology has surfaced. This one does a good job showing how any surface can be turned into a touchscreen.

Multiplayer Boat-racing game for iPhones

In celebration of the opening of their Mobile Division, digital production shop Pirata released this awesome multiplayer boat racing game that uses iPhones and iPod Touches as controllers.

After downloading the app, users goto this site, sync their devices with their selected team, and start the race.

The Pirata team explains the game in this demo:

Find the app for download here.

Interesting to consider what else might be possible using synced smart phones.

Touch Gesture Reference Guide

This is useful – “The Touch Gesture Reference Guide is a unique set of resources for software designers and developers working on touch-based user interfaces” by Luke Wroblewski.

You can download the PDF, EPS or Omnigraffle Stencil from his blog here.