Speech to text. Natural gesture interfaces. MIT's Sixth Sense wearable computer. Touch surfaces and non-touch interfaces. All of them have one thing in common. They do away with the need to use a standard keyboard or mouse. Computing is changing, and the place to hear about where we are heading with it all, is at Learning Without Frontiers.
Natural user interfaces (NUIs) just happened to be the theme of an invited presentation by Microsoft's Head of Research, Professor Andrew Blake (pictured) this morning at LWF. Although, as some of the audience tweeted, non-touch interfaces are already here, it was interesting to see how Microsoft and other large corporations plan to incorporate this technology into their products in the near future. We are clearly headed for a world of intuitive computer use according to Professor Blake. He started by demonstrating how technology is capturing and recognising the shape and movement of the human body and he discussed the challenges involved in achieving this. Different body shapes, sizes and people standing in groups can all confuse cameras, because they 'see' us as flat images rather than in 3D, he said. How does the camera select human limbs from their background surroundings for example? he asked. The use of the depth camera achieves this. Using the example of the special effects in the Hollywood movie Titanic and its extensive use of matte technology (what we used to call colour separation overlay in television studio work) Professor Blake deftly applied a similar approach to visual manipulation for practical applications. This technology builds on previous research into object recognition and is used for example in games playing technologies such as the XBox 360 Kinect. Computers can even recognise emotions now, said Blake, and this was an unexpected spin-off from autism research, where facial feature recognition software was first developed. Blake admits that all this important research is leading somewhere significant, but he admits he doesn't really know what shape it will take yet. The final summing up remark was that with new non-touch interfaces, it is likely that computers will learn from us, just as we learn from computers.
It's only natural by
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Games based learning as expected, had a highly visible profile at this year's Learning without Frontiers festival, in London. Take David Samuelson for example. As Head of Augmented Reality development for Pearson Education, he must have one of the coolest jobs in the world. He gets to explore all the latest possibilities technology can offer to education, and to ask the "what if?" questions each day.
In his invited presentation at today's Learning Without Frontiers festival, David emphasised what his audience already believed - for children, video games are an ideal, natural medium for learning. Kids love playing games, he said, and they learn from them without effort or inhibition. They are often 'in the flow' and don't have any hang ups about expressing themselves. He is interested in mashups - where augmented reality can be embedded within games. It's a new generation of games that is emerging, but with the advancement of games console design, the new 3DS Nintendo screens, and the natural gesture controls of devices such as XBox 360, the time is right. The universal appeal of games must be a natural extension to learning in formal situations. What excites him most is the story telling that is seen in the latest games, for example Heavy Rain.
Another invited speaker at #lwf is Dawn Hallybone, the ICT co-ordinator and senior teacher at Oakdale Junior School in Essex, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the LWF teachmeet on Sunday night. She had entered into the spirit of the fancy dress teachmeet and was wearing a luminous pink wig. In a very engaging presentation today (without her wig), she talked about playful learning and highlighted how handheld devices such as the Nintendo DS (used in her school as a brain training tool) and games such as Professor Layton puzzle adventure stories can be used to inspire kids to learn a range of key skills such as literacy, numeracy, problem solving, team working and interpersonal communication.
Dawn uses an innovative combination of tools including the Nintendo Wii, to engage kids in scenarios that take on a 3D immersion effect. They become so engaged in their characters and activities, they forget where they are, she explained. Dawn also eulogised over how Twitter has enabled her and her colleagues worldwide to connect and share their ideas on how they are using these tools in new and exciting ways to enhance learning in formal settings. They have set up a games network, pooled their meagre resources, and have purchased a library of games that can then be shared across all the schools that are members of the collective. Long may it continue.
Speech to text. Natural gesture interfaces. MIT's Sixth Sense wearable computer. Touch surfaces and non-touch interfaces. All of them have one thing in common. They do away with the need to use a standard keyboard or mouse. Computing is changing, and the place to hear about where we are heading with it all, is at Learning Without Frontiers. 
