The #1 winner is: Barnes & Noble! This is great information if you were ever curious about leading brands in their respective industries. Check it out!
This might remind you of Microsoft’s Photosynth, but the concept is slightly different. Adobe blends images that are compositional, and semantically (tagged) related and stitches them into an endless canvas. The photos that are stitched together therefore don’t need to be of the same object in the way Photosynth was implemented. However, Photosynth does allow you to create 3D objects and pivot around it in space.
Infinite Images takes any collection of tagged images, not necessarily from the same location at all, and stitches them together in 3D by analyzing their composition and the semantics of their tags (“sky” is above “ground,” for example).
MINI Cooper has just released a new advertisement that uses AR technology. People can see a full 3D models of a MINI on their computer screen using a web cam and IE. (ActiveX required)
We are no strangers to touch based interactions, or pen-based either, so it’s great to see Johnny Lee and others continue pushing the development of the perfectly useful input method.
a new application that runs on Google Android - lets you view the world through Wikipedia-tinted glasses. Simply point your mobile device’s camera at your surroundings and Wikitude will display an augmented reality version of it on the screen - a version complete with information about the buildings and other landmarks you can see, sourced directly from Wikipedia!
In part 2 of our series on sketching, we take a look at the pros and cons for digital versus analog sketching, and why we don’t yet live in a paperless world.
In a digital studio packed with Tablet PCs, Adobe Suites, and more, why do we still reach for “old-fashioned” paper and pen?
A few of us in the studio have a Tablet PC and/or Wacom device, and those of us that do are pretty die-hard fans (at least for drawing - don’t ever take my keyboard away for text entry!). Microsoft’s vision of a Tablet PC future hasn’t quite come to the level they imagined, but the devices and technology are definitely getting better. Personally, Tablet PC features outweighed Apple Industrial Design for my notebook of choice (and yes I’ve seen the ModBook but it’s just not quite the same).
Digital sketching definitely has its benefits (more on that later), but there are a few qualities of the analog that still keep that vision of a paperless life just beyond bounds:
1. Readily Accessible.
Ideas fade as quickly as they come - it’s best to capture them as quickly as possible and paper is always readily accessible. It’s not 4 clicks away and it never needs to be booted up. Some research we’ve done on physical versus digital writing indicates that instant on and state preservation are critical to making digital note taking and drawing feel easy and readily accessible.
2. Tangible.
The direct, physical, 1:1 connection between the drawing tip and the paper is a subtle but important feature. Different drawing tools - fine and broad point pen tips, brushes, and more provide valuable haptic feedback to the artistand physically connect the fine motions of their hand to the drawing surface. Even the subtle haptic feedback of dragging a ballpoint across paper is much more tactile and responsive than a plastic nib on glass. Additionally, it is always hard to asses exactly how a stroke will turn out when the tiny nib is used to directly large, broad strokes, which is made even worse by parallax…
3. Parallax-Free.
Although very good, screen-based digitizers still suffer from some parallax. This is where the pen tip appears to be at a slightly different location from where it is making a mark on the screen. This is due to the offset between the LCD and the top surface of the display. Although it may not sound that bad, this can be highly frustrating. For example, I’ll draw a line and then want to draw over it again to thicken it up or add weight, but it’s nearly impossible to get the lines to match just right. I’ll apply the stroke, but it’s just a few millimeters away from where I intended.
4. Minimal Commitment.
In particular, working sketches are quick and only needed for a short period of time. Committing to a “save document” process flow and folder filing system is just too much cognitive load and commitment for the task at hand and too unwieldy for a pen-based interface. Digital sketching is at least more thought-engaging than mouse-controlled illustration, but it still is a higher load than simple pen and paper. OneNote has done a good job to simplify this by automatically saving in the background. It’s just too bad the inking interface is not better for drawing and sketching like ArtRage or Sketchbook Pro.
5. Large physical canvas.
The other advantage of paper is that many sketches can be laid out and compared and discussed all at once and in any combination / organization as opposed to on a device where finite screen real estate limits viewing to one or a few at a time.
6. Ultra Portable.
Paper notepads come in just about any size - whatever is just right to take with you and there’s no battery to worry about charging before leaving home. Paper can also be physically transferred anywhere - folded, crumpled, stuffed in a book, stapled together, anything.
7. Cheap!
For those that haven’t invested in the digital counterpart, pen and paper is just so much cheaper and easier to acquire. At $6 per 600 sheets of notepad paper, and $3 per dozen bic pens, one could do a lot of sketching before reaching the $2000 price tag of typical tablet PCs, or even the $200-300 premium for tablet features on a typical notebook.
The gist of all of this is that pen and paper is still just easier and more convenient. It appears to still be both a hardware problem (tactility, feel, accessibility, battery life), as well a software problem (pen-optimized interfaces, open/close/save model, simplicity of interface).
What about you? Do you sketch digitally with a wacom tablet, tablet pc, or other device? Has your experience been good or bad? Comment and let us know your opinions!
by Kevin Wong, posted December 22nd, 2008
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