In the Pipes

DWF this Link

Ok, this isn't new, but it is new to me.  You can add this "favorite" to your browser and when you click on it, it turns all DWF links into thumbnails.  And if you click the thumbnail, it brings up the DWF in a viewer.  Free & Easy!

Here are before & after shots.  First I searched "filetype:dwf P&ID" then I picked the DWF-this-link bookmark:

Excellent instructions on how to do this found here:

  http://dwf.blogs.com/articles/bookmarklet.htm

Good name "bookmarklet" - it's a bookmark AND a little application (app-let).   

Innovation and Convergence

I blogged a few weeks back about some interesting interaction ideas involving touch screens – in particular, the screen from Perspective Pixel. Turns out, we have video of Tom Wujec using the screen with software out of Autodesk’s Alias portfolio. (In case you didn’t realize, Autodesk acquired Alias a bit more than a year ago - not the ISOGEN Alias, the 3D graphics Alias).

We are getting one of those Perspective Pixel touch walls in the office here. I imagine there will be quite a line when it shows up.  The title of this post includes "convergence" because it turns out that as I'm thinking about these innovations in design, Autodesk is too.  In fact, we have a blog - It's Alive in the Lab - devoted to these fresh ideas.

But here’s my problem with the all the cool designs around touch screens. Hardly anyone has a touch screen.  Of course you can get them, but are they are far from ubiquitous. So I thought I’d mention a couple of other input methods that are also intriguing.

First, web cam as motion detector – in some ways a similar interaction to a touch screen, although you don’t actually get fingerprints on anything. There are a number of variations on this idea.  You, of course, need a webcam to get these working.
http://www.marceldejong.info/experiments/bubble/index.html
http://www.extendedreality.com/webcam_game_motion_bubbles.html

And how many of you have wondered if the nintendo Wii could be ever be integrated with AutoCAD?  Ok, so we got a little punchy at the bug-scrub meetings this week, and our Software development manager, Max, has a Wii (or so he says).  But we all thought it would be a great way to draft - especially in 3D!

Every time I think about it, the idea of getting beyond the mouse/keyboard input seems like such an obvious evolution of technology. But even in keyboards, they don’t need to be so desktop intensive. This laser keyboard has been out for a while – it comes complete with simulated key click sounds. Extremely mobile, small enough to fit in all sorts of spaces, not sure how well it works in practice.  But the idea is wonderful.  People are already requesting extensions of this idea - things like a laser projected synthesizer keyboard.

We just had a divisional meeting, where it was mentioned that things that appeared to be toys in
yesteryear are embraced in business today - the desktop PC; Windows operating system; 3D modeling. . . . makes one give the toys another look.

P&ID Screencast

Hear me roar.

Announcing P&ID Beta

It has been an interesting couple of years.  Two years ago this time I was entrenched in New Orleans, living it that run down mansion, casting around for some new challenges  (actually, I was on vacation in Amsterdam, but my normal life was in New Orleans).  Last year this time I was in San Francisco, but I had the mindset that I would move back to New Orleans in the fall, and was treating every weekend like a vacation.  Trust me, San Francisco is also a great town to vacation in & around.

But now it's spring 2007, and I've gone native.  I've finally bought that house in the city (Lower Haight, if you know SF neighborhoods, closing in 4 days.)  I got a California drivers license.  I just finished my last packet of Louisiana French Roast Community Coffee.  I know the name of our MSL soccer team, how to navigate much of the city without a map, where to eat/drink/be merry.  I've started dressing in layers.  I've stopped noticing that the bars are smoke free, and just enjoy the clear air.

P&ID is also on its second year - we've started beta testing on our second release.  If you would like to beta test the software, please go to http://myfeedback.autodesk.com to sign up. Use the beta code HarpBeta. For those who already have a beta user login, modify your profile to add Harp to the Beta code.

We are looking for as much feedback as possible so we can address as many items as possible before shipping.  Your input would be greatly appreciated. 

CHI 2007

I am a designer...in case you didn't realize.  I did not go to school for Design (I studied Mechanical Engineering and Material Science), but I do earn my living at it now.  As a designer, I've been exposed to all sorts of interesting design theory stuff.  Recently I've become aware of CHI 2007 conference.  I'm blogging from the conference now, where I'll be most of the week.  Since I'm here, I figured it was time to build myself a Computer-Human avatar using the Cyborg Name Decoder.  Check out the cyborg me:

 

CHI appears to be a academic leaning conference in "Computer Human Interaction".  Autodesk is a first time sponsor this year, and many of our designers are in attendance.  These sort of events are interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that commonly accepted ideas in academia eventually become accepted in the real world - although it can take a decade or more.

Anyhow, digging around in the CHI website, I fell into a link chain that eventually led me to this video from 2006 of a newer interface (not that touchscreens are new, but they've come a long way).  It make you rethink the whole mouse-keyboard-as-input idea.

It has also gotten me thinking about how cool would it be to do 3D piping design with this screen - productive models and a fun workout all at the same time!  I figure some voice-recognition to input dimensions/commands and we'd have ourselves a SWEET pipe modeling system.  Things like this almost make me want to go back to academia...almost.

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