Check out this video, If David Lynch Directed Dirty Dancing.
The original film was great, but we want to see this one!

Skive and Multi-touch Technology

A few weeks ago, Skive were invited to the Microsoft offices for a presentation on their Surface technology. Here we had a chance to get a hands-on with their intriguing multi-touch technology which prompted some investigation into touch devices in general.

Getting your head around ‘blob tracking’

The technology behind these multi-touch devices is surprisingly simply to understand. Unlike pressure sensitive devices found in phones, the software monitors images received from a camera or cameras looking for changes in brightness and contrast. Placing a hand on a diffused screen above the camera forms a visible shadow / pressure point that can be seen from underneath. By applying filters and thresholds to this image ‘blobs’ are generated that can be tracked as the hand moves.

Refinement of this detection is scalable to cost, improvements are made with infra-red technology, controlled diffusion and professional cameras. However, it is actually possible to make one of these devices yourself with nothing more than a cardboard box, picture frame and a webcam.

Building your own

There are a number of tutorials on the web than can show you how to do this (links below), for my box I followed the great tutorial on the NUI group forums. For the hardware I chose a webcam that performs well in low-lighting conditions and had an acceptable frame rate of 30fps. Construction of the box is relatively simple, center the camera and ensuring the boxes edges are level is straight-forward, using the correct paper for diffusion is essential as A4 white is too thick to get an accurate result so I used grease-proof paper (although tracing paper is also a good option).

On the software side I used the opensource program from the NUI group called community core vision or tBeta. This program allows you to monitor input from a number of sources, including pre-recorded video in case you don’t have a device available. All input is extensively configurable, allowing you to adjust for lighting conditions and other environmental variables in real time.

CCV stands as an intermediary layer between your multi-touch applications, providing a socket server that broadcasts TUIO data about the blobs that it is tracking.

This data can be received by any technology capable of connecting to this socket allowing complete freedom over the language you choose to program in. The installation package for tBeta comes with a number of Flash .swf examples, and a more examples for other languages can be found on their website, forums and wiki.

Additional links:

» Hardware tutorial for creating your own multi-touch cardboard box
» Community Core Vision (aka tBeta or “The Beta”)
» Oxfiphone project/library, openframeworks expansion for the iPhone
» Videos tagged on vimeo – click here and here

We were chuffed to see Mission 1 of Start Thinking Soldier announced as the winner of May’s IAB Creative Showcase, awarded by none other than Flo Heiss of Dare.

It beat Tribal’s GTI Project for VW, which is certainly a nifty piece of work.

Hopefully this is an indication of more awards to come – especially as Mission 2 is even better than its predecessor.

We’re Kit Kat’s UK digital agency and this month we updated our successful ‘Perfect Break’ website and Facebook page to incorporate the brand’s new ‘Fashion Break’ promotion.

The Kit Kat Senses ‘Fashion Break’ promotion launched in May and will run until July.

»Check out the website
»View the Facebook page

Skive was commissioned by AMV BBDO to produce an interactive Facebook application to launch the new Nicorette Icy White gum flavour.

Users can feed their friends to a set of 3D animated lips and watch them react with variation of expressions. The app features a progress monitor, allowing you to enter your ‘quit date’ and follow your progress.

» Check it out here
» View the rich media here

The next phase in The Army’s Start Thinking Soldier campaign has launched.

Focusing on the theme of ‘Decision Making’, Mission 2 features heavy use of video-to-interactive Flash in a close combat fire and manoeuvre challenge, as well as allowing the user to plan and carry out a mortar attack.

Experience Mission 2

YouTube is running a 48 hour advertising contest in collaboration with the Cannes International Advertising Festival and Oxfam GB.
Our very own Matt Stafford has created this video submission.

Duncan and Matthew attended Flash in the Can in Toronto in April - an intense four days of training, conferences and networking.

By the end both were fully loaded with new information, business cards and inspiration. The intellectual resilience to this sensory overload was telling, and on the final night Duncan let his hair down and partied within the inner sanctum of the FITC Leet, resembling a character from one of the sessions - Interactive Story Telling – Zos World;

Matthew sat in his hotel room wistfully tweeting about the background ambience of the Toronto Tamil protests – go figure.

Skive has won a pitch to deliver a rich interactive microsite for WCRS and its client Weetabix as part of an integrated campaign for the Weetabix Minis brand.

It promises to be a lot of fun.

We love this guerilla execution by Draftfcb for Windex in the US. The objective was to demonstrate the ‘glass so clean it’s invisible’ proposition in a fun, attention-grabbing way. Staged in Chicago, the ambient experience was staged over a week during the busiest times of day.

View the execution here.