Very cool “multi-touch” screen technology. Watch the Quicktime video.
“While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.”
Posted by Robert Befus at 4:53 PM .
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In the June 14th edition of Inside Training, John Ambrose, vice president and general manager of online reference-ware provider Books24 x 7, a division of SkillSoft, warns trainers that the graduates of the Class of ‘06 are not likely to put up with the PowerPoint status quo. His is a noteworthy message for presenters, too:
“‘They thrive in a media-rich world. They almost enjoy being bombarded with lots of different input, and then they like being able to ferret out just the nuggets they want, and don’t want to be bothered with the stuff that’s not particularly relevant to them.’ So, that means plenty of immersive learning activities such as simulations, and the ability of systems that allow them to pick and choose, cafeteria style, the exact combination of information resources they need for the work at hand.”
“The new generation would rely on search, which is a very comfortable paradigm for them,” Ambrose points out. “Ten years ago, it was all about course completion. Course completion is the old paradigm of sitting passively, and going through an entire course from beginning to end. Now organizations are looking at minutes of usage as a real indicator of learning.”
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 2:50 PM .
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There was one bit of technology that was missing at InfoComm and I believe from a presentation perspective it is very intriguing.
Have you ever completed a CD or DVD compilation or burned a Pack to CD PowerPoint show and wished you could just turn the disc over and burn a label? Instead you need to go into your labeling program, find the template, put labels into the laser printer, and hope you can print it right and stick it on without a crease.
Just before leaving on my trip I received an eval kit from the Hewlett-Packard division called LightScribe. This is a system or brand that works with certain enabled CD and DVD burners and certain media to enable the process I just described. After (or prior to) burning your compilation in the usual manner, you simply create a label in LightScribe software, turn the disc over, and burn it. Depending on complexity it can take a bit over half an hour (like my sample here) but so what? Get a cup of coffee.
This is not meant for large volume CD or DVD projects; however, it is great for a prototype or demo for a single potential client (which you can customize) or for those personal and family type projects that Altman does.
Personally I hate labels in laser printers and I am a total clod in terms of peeling them off and putting them onto discs. If I do a large volume job I will use a high end production company but I also need to send one one-sies and two-sies of potential projects and demos. For that this is great. Not in color — yet — but coming soon. And the drives and media are not much more than the standard types.
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 2:11 PM .
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It just might be that the best place to deliver a presentation is Starbucks.
Apparently, not only does caffeine increase alertness and mental acuity, it also makes you more open minded.
According to research at the University of Queensland in Australia, people who are jacked up on java, or rather its active pscyhochemical ingredient, are better able to concentrate on the details of a persuasive argument and therefore more open to being persuaded.
Would you like cream and sugar with that PowerPoint?
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 7:10 PM .
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For as long as I have been associated with Presentation Professionals in various settings, I have been aware of an underlying sense of professional identity confusion that runs through the group. Even after years of discussion in groups like the IAPP (now defunct) and the InfoComm Presentations Council, it is still not uncommon to hear people argue, question or discuss exactly what a Presentation Professional is. Who are they? What do they do? Where do they work? And perhaps most importantly, what do Presentation Professionals want?
Fortunately for Presentation Professionals everywhere, some of these questions are finally beginning to be answered thanks to survey results just released by the Presentations Council of InfoComm International. The questions asked in this survey were developed by a project subcommittee of the Presentations Council (the survey group) that included Korie Pelka, Lisa Lindgren, Darlene Briggs, Richard Bray and Bob Befus. InfoComm’s Market Research group, led by Eva Guterres then developed the online survey itself. The survey group worked hard to publicize the survey through email invitations, listserve messages and through various blogs and newsletters. As a result of their efforts, a very respectable 928 complete responses were collected to the 25 survey questions.
In this article I will present a few of the more interesting highlights from the survey, the complete survey will be available for purchase from InfoComm International here soon. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Robert Befus at 3:45 PM .
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From “Top Ten Truths About the Digital Ecosystem“, a recent post on the Dealing with Darwin blog:
“10. Images are king. Verbal content, by virtue of its sheer volume, is increasingly perceived as noise. We are entering a new era of collage, where the mind of the viewer is the assembling artist. Verbalization happens post facto, the residue of headline skimming and subconscious synthesis. The esthetics of digitally enhanced images will become increasingly powerful as a vehicle for cutting through the clutter. Manipulating semantics or semiotics via images will become increasingly sophisticated, both in the private and public sectors. High-definition displays and portable form factors will be popular mass markets. Indexing and searching images, on the other hand, while technologically interesting, will be of peripheral impact.”
Posted by Lee Potts at 8:00 AM .
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First it’s smoking in restaurants and bars. I just knew banning PowerPoint in City Council Meetings wouldn’t be far behind… read on!
Posted by Mary Waldera at 8:59 PM .
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I’ve always been interested in colour vision (yes, I’m in the UK, so US readers please translate: color); we have no way of really knowing how different people actually perceive differing hues. I once had an assistant who was extremely good at correcting colour casts when printing photographs, despite having a marked degree of red-green colour vision deficiency. I have a tendency to call green what others would describe as blue, and vice versa, but only in that rather ambiguous cyan/turquoise palette.
What we do know is that the way the cone sensors in our eyes work is fairly well-established and common to most people. We’ve all experienced afterimages after viewing a bright light source.
There is a rather more subtle example of the afterimage effect that results from over-stimulation of retinal cones on John Sadowski’s Blog. A description of how the false colour image is created is here and Wikipedia has a brief explanation of the phenomenon. A good example of why we should not always believe our eyes.
Posted by Roy Hammans at 9:16 AM .
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Not suprisingly, it’s been challenging to find the time to post even with the ubiqutous wi-fi. I’m going to try later today to get my Super Tuesday notes posted. But in the meantime, here are a couple snapshots from the Digital Content Creation Pavillion (which is being co-sponsored by the Presentations Council).
The Pavillion is hard to miss:
Rick Altman of PowerPoint Live shares tips for getting the most out of digital cameras:
Posted by Lee Potts at 8:02 AM .
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Free Wi-Fi at the convention center!
Thanks InfoComm (and Sony)!
We’re currently listening to Jim Endicott’s Super Tuesday Presentation. Hope to share some “close-to-real-time” notes on his talk and Korie Pleka’s talk from earlier this morning if I can find some time during the lunch break.
Posted by Lee Potts at 9:30 AM .
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Early photography is always worth exploring - especially if you are a photographer - as you soon discover that most subjects and ideas have been covered by someone at some point during the long history of the medium.
When it comes to early use of visual media generally, both as an entertainment and as a communication tool, I had not seen very much historical material, either on the web or in print. This made my discovery of Thomas Weynants’ pages at A HISTORY of EARLY VISUAL & POPULAR MEDIA a particular delight.
In this rather quaint but incredibly comprehensive Belgian site (quaint because the site design definitely falls into the ‘early web design’ category - you will not find fancy style sheets or Flash here!) there is a wealth of information and many examples of all kinds of extraordinary historical uses for visual media.
The thumbnail image above (click to enlarge) shows a Phantasmagoria projection (an animated multimedia projection technique from around the French Revolution period) - just goes to show that, before PowerPoint was even dreamt of, folk were after creating stunning - and in this case frightening - presentations.
The whole site is worth devoting some time to. It covers everything from early photography, through television, to early cinema, featuring ‘Conjuring Arts’ along the way.
Posted by Roy Hammans at 12:22 PM .
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