something in the way

Today, we note the availability on Android of Control, a WebKit-based touch interface also on iOS.

For visualists and interactive designers, it’s worth paying attention to one feature in particular: dynamic interface creation. Perhaps biased by the musicians who have tended to embrace them, touch interfaces have tended to rely on the static layouts favored by physical knobs and faders. That’s arguably the worst of both worlds: you lose the tactile feedback of physical controls, but you don’t add any of the flexibility of a display.

Control is an open-source application rendered in HTML5, powered by JavaScript and JSON, so it’s capable of anything you can imagine. But Charlie Roberts has already demonstrated how a dynamic interface could work. Using OSC, you can make control layouts on the fly. That could lead to more sophisticated software integration for visual and musical performance, new chances for collaboration and live rigs, and the ability to make an interface on someone’s device in an interactive situation.

We saw the last of these scenarios in the case of the iOS app mrmr, developed by Eric Redlinger. As proof of concept, I and others put together a gallery show using mrmr, at which interactive pieces were able to build interfaces on-the-fly on user’s iPhones and iPads. With Control, those horizons expand, no longer constrained to individual proprietary UI widgets on one platform (like iOS), but cross-platform, Web-based, and dynamic.

The video above I think does a good job of scratching the surface of what’s possible. More on that here:
Control 1.3: Dynamic Interfaces, jQuery integration & more

But dynamic layouts could go in many, many directions. Since this is especially relevant to visual performance, perhaps in modes of interaction not really possible in music, I’d love to hear what readers imagine. And do try Charlie’s app, whether on iOS, Android, or both:
Control

– and if you’re really ambitious, have a look at the source!

A few months ago there was a lot of hoopla around the iPhone and the recording of your location. Crowdflow wants to take advantage of this opportunity to build an open database of location traces that people can use for research. Using their existing data so far, from 880 phones, Michael Kreil of Crowdflow mapped people moving around in Europe (in Germany for the most part). The results are beautiful.

The movements have a lovely firefly aesthetic as people, or I guess phones, move about the area. City centers of course glow brighter, and areas pulsate as night time comes and then becomes bright again in the morning.

Watch the animation play out in the videos below. The two are the same data, but with different color schemes. Increase size and resolutions for maximum effect. All it needs is some music for ultimate sexy.

[Crowdflow via infosthetics]

At first glance, you’ll see content that we’d previously shown you before: current conditions and a forecast for the next few days. But by moving the slider over the next 12 hours, you can now see a detailed hour-by-hour breakdown of the changing weather conditions. As you do this, keep an eye on the temperature, wind speed and humidity and see how all these conditions are expected to trend across the day. You may also notice that the background color changes throughout the day. Of course, as you scroll further down you’ll see our regular web search results for your query.

This new weather search experience is available only in English, but we have more updates on the way. We hope you’ll enjoy using it!

Posted by Nick Fey, User Experience Designer and Michael van Ouwerkerk, Software Engineer

Love strutting your stuff to that sassy barista at your favorite Starbucks? Starting today, you’ll be able to swipe your iPhone, iPod touch, or BlackBerry at almost all Starbucks locations to pay for your coffee (or delicious reduced-fat Cinnamon cake). The program had been piloted in California and many New York stores and allows you to use the Starbucks Mobile Card iPhone app to add your Starbucks Cards, track rewards, and also reload your cards from your phone. How easy is it to use to pay that Trenta Caramel Frappuccino? Just tap “touch to pay” in the app, hold it up to the scanner at the register and you’re off and running. Or slowly reconsidering ordering a 31oz blended coffee and beverage. Going to give it a go? Let us know, alright?

Read [BlackBerry] Read [iOS]

Weekend fun, part 1: as Reactable makes the leap from custom, tangible interface to go-anywhere iPhone/iPad app, here’s a look at what the fingertip-controlled music creation experience is like. The first of a series of tutorials, the video above walks you through some basic music production. It should lay to rest any question about whether this kind of interface can work in musical performance or live arrangement. I still think some artists will want to bang on something rather than just gently finger-paint their way through music, but as arrangement tool, it’s intriguing – and this video makes clearer what the thing is about.

(Just a couple of quick posts by way of apology for breaking one of our two servers, causing an outage. My fault.)

Here is a little game that Nick and I built using the iPhone and Android as the game controller. The characters are controlled using your finger gestures. You need to eat as many berries as possible while avoiding the blocks.