The Center for Graphic Facilitation

The Multi-Touch Interface

In this demo at the 2006 TED conference, Jeff Han shows off a high-resolution multi-touch computer screen--his prototype drafting table-cum-touch display, developed at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences--that may herald the end of the point-and-click mouse. The demo, which drew spontaneous applause and audible gasps from the audience, begins with a simple lava lamp, then turns into a virtual photo-editing tabletop, where Han flicks photos across the screen as if they were paper snapshots. (The Apple iPhone, to be released a year later, also does multi-touch -- but only with two fingers.)

"When I think of initiatives like the $100 laptop, I cringe when I here that we are going to introduce an entire new generation to the mouse-window-keyboard interface. This is how we should be interacting with the machine from now on." - Jeff Han

MTV Art Battles

'Twas a shame that the content for this contest required the MTV logo. However, the concept was great.

Hosted and broadcast live by MTV in Times Square, May 2007, Art Battles showcased the work of 12 emerging artists vying for the opportunity to bring their work to the world. After two grueling hours, 8 finalists were chosen and the voting to determine the winner is now up to you. The winner was unveiled LIVE on TRL, June 11th.

You can see the frenetic MTV video montage of the event at ifilm.com. More at http://artbattles.mtv.com/

The Mind's Map

IMAGE by Akiyoshi KITAOKA, Professor, Department of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan

For years, the human brain has been compared to a computer—but it is a computer without a wiring diagram. Researchers simply do not know how the billions of neurons in the brain are connected to one another, and without this information they cannot fully understand how the brain’s structure gives rise to perception and behavior. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have jumped what many believe to be a major hurdle to preparing that chart by identifying all of the connections to a single neuron and other cells—a discovery that could eventually lead to a 3-D map of the brain’s wiring.

Showing the Backstory

One of the running themes at Worldchanging is the importance of knowing the backstory of the things we use and buy. There's no better incentive to be a responsible consumer than seeing previously invisible (and frequently unsavory) aspects of our commodities. Arlene Birt has begun designing communications campaigns for edible products; specifically, she has dragged the lifespan of a chocolate bar into transparency, from unharvested cacao bean to first delicious bite, by designing an easy-to-decipher graphic label for the interior of a chocolate bar wrapper. Check out the clever use of simple information graphics used in her project, Background Stories.