Garvey to Freeside

multitouch in space!

So I’ve been playing with another one of my teacher’s flash technologies (well, two actually). They’re called Goose, and Robin. Goose works by taking multitouch data from an XML file and reacting to said data in a number of ways. Robin uses PHP to allow multiple users to interact with each other in a flash application. Since I don’t have a multitouch tablet, a multitouch emulator is used to simulate multitouch by having multiple users connect and touch via Robin. I’ve dubbed my little experiment “tallGeese” for no other reason than the technology is called “Goose” and I have a gif of Tallgeese from Gundam Wing swinging his beam-sabers on my desktop. Man, I love that anime.

Unfortunately, I can’t show you a working example since I don’t want to leave this thing running on my server 24/7. Unless you’re here with me in class to ask me to start Robin up so you can have a look, you’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s multitouch and it works.

So how is this relevant to the world of technology? Well, multitouch is basically the confirmed future of technology. Laptops have it, the iPhone has it, Apple’s new mouse has it, Microsoft has prototype mice with it, it’s already happening. My favorite example of potential multitouch use comes from Art Lebedev, designer of the world’s most expensive keyboard. While the existing Optimus Maximus is cool, it’s his Optimus Tactus concept that’s really interesting – a completely flat surface who’s interface changes to match the application at hand, be it typing, photoshoping or programming drum-loops in pro-tools. This is still just a concept, and has yet to be developed, but I look forward to day I can buy one for myself. Multitouch, of course, would be at the heart of such a keyboard. I feel futuristic just thinking about it.

beachyHead in action - it kind of looks like a head, right?

Greetings Internet,

After my recent delve into Flash AS3, I wrote a little something I’d like you all to check out:

beachyHead
beachyHead HiRes (Warning: may run slowly on old computers)

It’s based off of motion capture technology written by a teacher of mine from Sheridan. This little swf I wrote (which I cleverly named beachyHead, after the ghostly cliffs in England and the tendency for large birds to stick their heads in the sand) uses the technology for a strictly cosmetic purpose. I admit, it looks pretty cool, but it doesn’t do much else. However, the technology behind it raises a few questions in terms of possible future interfaces.

With companies like GestureTek  making splashes in Tokyo with their motion capture technology, and Sony revealing their new wand in an attempt to revive the eye-toy and one-up the Nintendo Wii, the interest is there, but is it useful? The first thing that comes to mind is what one might call the “Minority Report” scenario in which a variety of physical gestures are used to interface with a computer. While Ostrich could very well be used for this purpose, it would hardly be effecient. The whole purpose behind the idea is to create an interface which feels more natural to the user. However, in many cases, motion capture does just the opposite. It’s been decades now since the advent of the personal computer, and children today are growing up with a mouse in their hands from infancy. Compare pointing and clicking with orienting yourself infront of your webcam and physically trying to point at a button you want to press. You’re going to find the latter to be much more difficult and much less efficient. The human brain has an amazing ability to accept tools as extensions of the body. To us, the mouse and cursor are natural extensions of our will. This isn’t to say that the mouse cannot be made obsolete, but I don’t believe motion capture is going to be the technology to do it.

In terms of entertainment, the Wii is a good example of how motion capture can be both helpful and hindering, depending on context. Wii sports makes great use of motion to mimic the natural movements of archery, or baseball. On the other hand, attempting to implement motion-capture into a 2D arcade fighter (eg. Guilty Gear XX) leaves players longing for their old arcade joystick. For any of you who missed out on the title, yes, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core was released on Wii with an option to use motion-capture to attack, and no, it really wasn’t a good idea.

Of course, for many, usefulness is truly irrelevant.
All that really matters is how cool it looks.

Wintermute

I’d like to talk a little about why I have dedicated so much of my time to the exploration of technology.

My friends might say that I love technology, but it’s really more of a “love-hate”. The ability to control our environments has been what’s brought us into our role as a dominant species on the planet. However, our gift has been our greatest curse, and we have found ourselves in battle with our own technologies.

Asbestos probably seemed like a great idea before they found out what happens when you inhale it. The combustion engine was our greatest triumph in transportation until we started looking at the exhaust that comes out of it. Who knows, maybe in a few years we’ll start looking back on the Internet and thinking “gee, maybe it wasn’t such a great idea after all. That whole anonymous thing kind of ruined it for the rest of us,” but for now, it seems pretty unlikely. The trouble is, people have lived for tens of thousands of years with the technologies that have helped us prosper as a species (ie farming), and barely a couple hundred years with the technologies that we’re now pouring so much effort into correcting. That’s not even considering all twenty-or-so years with had with the world wide web, but who uses that anyways?

What’s amazing is how when looking at the ways in which past technologies have ruined our health, or our environment or our lives, we look to one thing for an answer; more technology. The really amazing part is that often, it actually seems to work. Our ability to control our environment owes itself to our ability to make mistakes and, more importantly, to learn from them.

Whether technology, to you, seems like the bane of humanity, or our ticket to utopia, there’s no question that it’s a key part of our lives. While not everyone feels the need to live their lives so close to the bleeding edge, it is important for us to keep an eye on what technology is doing, and think deeply about the consequences of it’s use.

Technology can connect us to the collective minds of all humanity, or vaporize us instantly in a radioactive hell-fire. It creates jobs, it takes jobs, and it turns computer nerds into billionaires. I can’t say that about anything else on the planet. This is what fuels my interest in technology, and the reason I have dedicated so much of my life to it.

I’d like to know what you think; is technology the focus of your life, or simply a backdrop to the deeper human goings-on? Feel free to comment :3

Paul looking cool

“Hello world!”

Now that I’ve got wordpress up and running, I suppose I should take a minute to make the first post.

This blog will serve as an aide to my thesis and will contain posts related to the advancement of information technology, if not directly related to the Internet as a conscious entity. However, the first few posts will probably be centered around the progress of my thesis project.

For now, I’ve named the blog “Garvey to Freeside” which is the name of my current blogspot blog. I’ll probably be keeping both blogs, one as a sparsely updated personal journal of my interests, and the other a (hopefully) more frequently updated journal of thoughts and opinions related to our relationship with technology and the Internet. I am unsure of whether or not the names will be kept the same.

Either way, I had best get back to work. Here’s to hoping I can scrounge up some readers!

– Paul McMonagle