Tan Le, head of Emotiv Systems talks at TED about their creation of the EPOC, a brainwave reading headset. The EPOC has won a 2010 Red Dot Award for design, and uses new algorithms to read the brainwaves of any individual. Unlike previous brainwave reading headsets which take a long time to set up and cost on the order of tens of thousands of dollars, the EPOC is available now for $299 on the Emotiv website. The applications for the device are incredibly diverse and endless as it provides the ability to control any digital device with one’s mind. Emotiv is currently seeking developers and researchers to expand upon the platform and come up with new applications for the device to usher in all new and exciting human computer interactions.

Microsoft Research presents its case for the inclusion of pen input along side of touch input on Tablet PCs and other touch-enabled computers. While Microsoft and Apple have taken opposing views on the need for pen input on computing devices, there are indeed good arguments on both sides. Unfortunately the more obvious and useful cases for pen input, such as sketching, are slightly less academic, making researchers strive to come up with more novel uses. In any case, several intriguing use-cases are presented and perhaps they will inspire more practical applications down the road. It seemed like only yesterday when every multi-touch computer simply demonstrated rotating and zooming photos.

John Underkoffler’s demo at TED 2010 just scratches the surface of the gestural interface work being done by him and his team. Oblong, the company founded to commercialize the work has put out this demo video demonstrating the many interactions possible with the system they designed. The system utilizes the gestural language ‘G-Speak’ designed originally for the movie Minority Report, but with the full intention of being a robust language for real-world gestural interfaces.

John Underkoffler, MIT researcher and inventor of the user interface from the movie Minority Report, demonstrates the real technology at TED 2010. Having been working on tangible user interfaces over 15 years ago, his team was consulted to create a 3D gestural interaction language called G-Speak specifically for the movie Minority Report. The research as since been used to further gestural UI by other teams and is now making its way into the real world by industries which process large amounts of information. John predicts it could be as little as 5 years before the technology is integrated into consumer displays, with no special gloves or extra equipment needed. Perhaps it will be even sooner, given the launch of Project Natal for the Xbox this Fall.

Bsquare, the embedded systems firm behind the new Coca-Cola Freestyle soda fountain talks up their role in providing the brains for the device. The concept is brilliant, but clearly from the video, the embedded computer is quite underpowered and the touch-screen experience is more akin to an old ATM than the experience found on the latest smart phones. Nonetheless, the new fountain serves over 100 different flavors of soda, water, and juice. Also, check out the brief history of the Coca-Cola soda fountain too.

Stepping up to the plate is Patrick Baudisch, now with the Human-Computer Interaction group at Hasso Plattner Institut. He and his students have kicked multi-touch up a notch demonstrating multi-toe recognition. Their research has enabled them to recognize individuals by the heat signatures of their shoes, as well as recognize various interactions such as pointing, leaning, head tracking, and more. It may be early, but it looks like a step in the right direction.

The Puyocon mouse is shown off at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009 by students at the University of Tsukuba. Unlike other mid-air input devices, the Puyocon is meant to be thrown either as an input gesture, or for passing from one to another. With 14 pressure sensors in it, it is able to capture with reasonable detail the movement of the ball. It is a bit difficult to imagine it working well with Powerpoint, it may prove very fun in combination with party games in which people toss it to each other. For more visit the Puyocon website.

Luke Wroblewski speaks at Mix ‘09 about the best practices of web form design. Covering everything from flow, layout, error handling, help, buttons, and more… Luke covers everything you need to know to design great web forms. And of course at the end he encourages people to not use forms at all. Overall, Luke presents a great practical guide backed up with lots of research and maintains the audience’s attention with the use of lots of great visual examples of both good and bad form design. Check out his book Web Form Design at Amazon.com.

Doubling up on its bet on tablet PCs, Microsoft is working on the dual-screen Courier booklet. Using both pen and gesture based interaction methods, the technology incorporates many of the interaction models we’ve seen developed over the past 10 years. Most interestingly is the fact that it is the first piece of technology to emphasize the light-weight notebook form factor while utilizing two displays. The potential is imaginative as usual and it will be fun to see where this leads.

Waving hands about to try on clothing at a store? This is how Cisco ushers out their vision for the future of shopping. Overall it just seems pretty far fetched that the main innovation in the experience shown is that of their new business router. On the other hand, Microsoft Xbox’s Project Natal may in fact be the technology that leads to such a customer experience. All in all, such an experience would be much better suited for home shopping. The primary benefit of in-store shopping really is the hands on touchy feely aspects… not the fact that they have mirrors.