During 2009 Intactlab, together with SOCO Sensus, assisted students from the Utrecht School for the Arts during the development of their masters project (“Oma is de weg kwijt” or “Grandmother lost her way”). What started of as an interesting concept ended up as a full featured educational multi-touch game. The game focusses on teaching history to students in their elementary years in the Dutch educational system. Through the clever use of digging and waving gestures users can explore an excavation site and discover virtual artefacts from different time periods. Credit for this wonderful product go to the students :
In 2008 we where asked by the Dutch TV broadcaster VPRO to produce a multi-touch table for their show “Dat kan beter” (translates to: “We can improve this”). The show featured four guest scientist who presented their research on our multi-touch table. Our table operated perfectly despite the heavy burden of the studio lighting. Intactlab made a custom multi-media application which was used showcase all the videoclips and images on the show. This later became the LightBox application. It was the first time a multi-touch table was used steadily on a regular TV show in Europe.
We were invited by the PICNIC conference in our beloved city of Amsterdam to participate in the AdWall project. A custom multi-touch wall sponsored and co-developed with advertisement agency DRAFT FCB. Intactlab developed the software together with DRAFT FCB, SOCO Sensus developed the wall itself.
On the 80″ inch TouchWall we presented the user with a zoom-able map of the conference. The conference which was divided into several different buildings on different locations situated in the area of the Westergas Fabriek. Our map was not only giving the user/ visitor a idea of the walking route from event to event. The Wall also monitored user generated content which got aggregated and divided across a timeline. The timeline ran from the early hours before the start of the event until the closing party. This resulted in a unique timeline view of the conference as seen through the eyes of the visitor. From minute to minute one could see all the photo’s video’s and tweets as they where aggregated.
The project won the Europrix 2009 Quality Seal which was an acknowledgement of the high level of innovation and creative mindset the development team showcased.
We got asked by one of the leading suppliers of equipment (atelier Michel Koene) for handicapped people to showcase our technology on the Support Fair in Utrecht the Netherlands.With use of the fluid solver classes by Memo Akten (http://www.memo.tv) we made a sensory stimulation application. Through use of shadow tracking technology we could widen the interaction distance from the actual surface to 30 to 40 cm from the screen. This made interaction possible by waving gesture but also by making use of the balloons. For us as (interaction) designers it was very interesting and pleasing to see the response from the children en see this technology being used by a totally different target group.
In February 2008 we had the honour of having a TV crew over at the studio of our hardware partner SOCO Amsterdam. They worked on a program called “In de ban van het ding” (practical joke which translates to “lord of the things”). It was broadcast on the 27th of February 2008 on the public TV channel VPRO. We had a full featured item in which we explained the benefits of multi-touch technology on one of our early prototypes. We got tremendous feedback from all kinds of organisations, businesses or otherwise interested individuals.
The item is mostly in Dutch although there are some parts in English with Dutch subtitles.
