Leap Motion Inspires Digital Painter Jeremy Sutton

Jeremy Sutton, a master digital artist for more than 2 decades, has been using Corel’s Painter Freestyle Beta application for Leap Motion to explore new ways to make art. 

By Jeremy Sutton | Paintboxtv.com

Painting in the Air…Literally

Imagine painting in the air, literally… That is now a reality with the amazingly powerful combination of the revolutionary new Leap Motion controller, the world’s most accurate 3-D motion-control technology, that accurately maps the movement of your hands and fingers in three dimensional space, and Corel Painter Freestyle, a simplified Leap-enabled version of the phenomenal paint program I have been using for over twenty years. Painter Freestyle will be available for free for a limited time in the Leap Motion Airspace app store when the Leap Motion device starts shipping, expected in July. Please scroll down to view some videos of air painting in action and learn a little more background about this revolutionary new way to paint. Also please visit the Action Painting page to see a video of air painting portraits being created live at an UrbanDaddy special event in San Francisco.

Air painting flower still life created using Corel Painter Freestyle and Leap Motion controller, San Francisco, 4/10/2013

Paradigm Shift

In January 2007 I was a speaker at Macworld and had the pleasure of sitting in the hall when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. I see the introduction of the Leap Motion control of computers as an equally significant paradigm-shift in the way we interact with our devices. Just as kids now take touch screens for granted, in a few years they will also take motion gesture control for granted. Painting in the air has a quality of magic… a cross between being a magician, a dancer and a symphony conductor! I am reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This certainly fits the bill!

Portrait of Lisa, air painted from life and then printed out on canvas, San Francisco, 3/24/2013. .

What struck me as I painted the portrait of Lisa and also the still life, both shown above and both created 100% using only movement and gesture of my hands in the air, was (1) the level of fine control of the quality of line I was able to achieve using movement in the z axis, equalling or even surpassing the level of pressure control I have using a pressure-sensitive Wacom pen tablet, and (2) how much I liked the quality of marks I made through motion in the air, and how there was a playfulness and looseness to the line quality that was different to the type of marks I would make either using a Wacom pen-tablet or traditional physical media.

The Background to Air Painting with
Leap Motion and Corel Painter

I became aware of Leap Motion in May 2012 and immediately saw the potential for a new way to paint. That same day I contacted both the Corel Painter team and Leap Motion, introduced them to each other and subsequently worked closely with both companies to help shape the resulting Painter product powered by motion gesture input from the Leap Motion device. I am a named inventor on Corel’s pending patent application for controlling color selection using gestures in a vision system. In March I demonstrated painting in the air with Corel Painter Freestyle and Leap Motion in the Leap Motion Experience tent at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Media Conference, Austin, Texas, where Leap Motion officially launched their product.

Demonstrating air painting in the Leap Motion Experience, plus air painting in the air, literally, at 30,000′ on a Southwest airline plane coming back from SXSW (the first ever air painting at that altitude).

While demonstrating at SXSW I was asked if painting in the air is tiring on my arms. I painted for three full days, each day for about five or six hours, and had no problems with arm fatigue. It was my legs that got tired standing for that long! I positioned the Leap Motion controller device low enough that my arms and hands remained most of the time in what I refer to as “dance position”, that is a comfortable position with a slight bend in the elbows. Here are a few links related to the SXSW air painting demonstration:

More About Corel Painter Freestyle

Corel Painter Freestyle allows you to easily select brushes, textures, commands and choose hue, value and saturation, to know where your cursor is in hover mode and to finely control your entry through the painting plane, all through hand movement and gesture. I can even save my files, clear the canvas and finely control the brush stroke quality, size, opacity and movement, and then be able to easily choose from 24 million colours, all with movement in the air and without touching anything. It takes a little practice to get used to, but once you do get the hang of it and sense of where the 3D painting zone is in space, it is absolutely brilliant as well as fun.

The Very First Air Paintings

Self-portrait, air paint, first portrait ever created from life with air painting, 11/29/2012

The self-portrait you see above was created on November 29th, 2012, and is the first painting from life ever created with 100% air painting. I was using early prototypes of both the Leap Motion controller and a Leap-enabled version of Corel Painter. A few days after this self-portrait I created the first ever air painting portrait of another subject from life:

Portrait of Chris, air paint, 12/1/2012

Intel launches new generation Core processors promising longer battery life

Ultrabooks and hybrid devices high on the hit list

By Dan Grabham | TechRadar.com

Intel has made impressive claims for the new processors - we'll be checking them out

Intel has announced its latest generation Core i3, i5 and i7 processor, promising that they will offer "the biggest improvement in battery life in Intel history" compared to their predecessors.

Like rival AMD, Intel believes that thin and light laptops will give way to hybrid Windows 8 devices that combine touch, keyboards and a convertible form factor that will see them either used as tablets or conventional laptops.

Intel's logic is that even larger laptops are moving towards thin and light designs, while there will be a bigger demand for touch PCs in future.

Intel is calling these chips "4th generation" and in Intel's tick-tock parlance, this is a tock (formerly codenamed Haswell) that succeeds Ivy Bridge, which also had a 22nm manufacturing process. There are 1.4 billion transistors on the quad-core die, which measures 177mm2.

Formerly codenamed Haswell, the new chip range succeeds Ivy Bridge

Comparing a 2012 Core i7-3667U (20W TDP) laptop chip with a new generation i7-4650U (15W TDP), Intel cites up to three hours of extra battery life (6 vs 9.1 hours) during HD video playback, and a two hour improvement (6.1 vs 8.3 hours) in MobileMark 2012.

Standby is up from 4.5 days to 10-13 days. Obviously we should take these figures with a pinch of salt, but there should be some interesting improvements in test figures for laptops.

Intel is making big promises for graphical improvements

Intel is also claiming a 2x improvement in the graphics capability of the new chip's HD 5000 graphics cores vs the previous HD 4000 generation.

Last month Intel has also announced two extra levels of graphics for more professional use, called Iris and Iris Pro, numbered as HD 5100 and HD 5200 respectively.

A Sneak Peek into Windows OS with Leap Motion

Touch Screen is so yesterday!

By Leap Motion Blog | http://blog.leapmotion.com

Today we released a sneak peek of Leap Motion’s Windows functionality, one of the essential features we’re refining for our July 22 launch. This video shows how Leap Motion technology will work easily and seamlessly with Windows OS. 

With the Leap Motion Controller, you’ll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that’s possible with multi-touch inputs — without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we’ll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X.

With the help of the developer community in our beta program, we’ll continue to refine this OS interaction as well as the innovative apps in Airspace. This program is in place to make sure the Leap Motion experience is what we’ve planned all along: to be the most intuitive, natural, and magical way to interact with your computer and to transform how the world interacts with technology. 

Windows XP and Office 2003 Comes to end-of-life

Notice from Microsoft Singapore:

On 8 April 2014, Microsoft will end support for its decade-old Windows XP. This means, you will no longer receive security updates, fixes or online technical support for PCs still running Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003.

The security and privacy implications of this event could have significant impacts on your business, so if you're running either of these products you should plan to take action soon. The potential implications of not doing so include:

·         Security threats

·         No one to call in the event of technical issue

·         Operational downtime

·         Reduced compatibility with software from other companies

You may have existing applications that run only on Windows XP. Let me assure you this is not a problem – Windows 8 has been built with a range of technologies that allow Windows XP applications to run seemlessly within Windows 8.

To avoid costly business downtime and security risks, we urge you to review your technology requirements and to upgrade your software sooner rather than later – deployments can take time and skilled technical resources may be in short supply in the final months of XP support. Using counterfeit software is certainly not worth the risk as research shows that fake software has extremely high levels of malware that expose organisations to increased security risks.

For the Singapore market,
Contact us for more information!
TEL: 6383 3833
EMAIL: sales@malifax.com.sg

Windows 8.1 leaks show off Start button, background talk surfaces

Herald the Start button's return!

By Michelle Fitzsimmons | TechRadar.com

Windows Blue bringing at least one thing back (credit: Windows SuperSite)

With less than a month to go before Build 2013, the attention on what Microsoft has planned has predominantly centered on Windows 8.1, a.k.a. Windows Blue.

Under the larger Blue umbrella is even more pointed talk of the return of the Start button, and today we may have a look at what the brand new button will look like, thanks to Paul Thurrott over at Windows SuperSite.

If you were holding back hope the Start button will indeed gallop triumphantly again to your screen, a look at these grabs may give you the jolt needed to take the leap.

Credit: Windows SuperSite

Look like the Start charm to you? Apparently, when users hover over the Start button icon, it changes color, taking on a black background and the flag logo's accent color. The Start button is said to be a permanent fixture of the internal Milestone Preview build of W8.1, but users may be able to turn it off at a later date.

There's more

Many of Thurrott's pronouncements were reported on/backed up by Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet today as well.

According to Foley, for those tired of tiles, Microsoft will let them set an "All Apps" view as default, wherein selecting the Start button will pull up a list of apps as icons - not tiles - on the Start screen. Users will reportedly be allowed to arrange apps by usage, too.

In addition to the Start button - which Foley's source said will be invisible until users move their mice to the bottom left corner of their screens - Microsoft also plans to let users keep their desktop wallpaper as their Start background, thus eliminating the disorienting transition from one screen to the next.

Credit: Windows SuperSite

However, this feature must be enabled as it's off by default. Speaking of off by default...that boot to desktop feature is apparently in a default as well, though users should appreciate that it's there at all.

BlackBerry Live 2013

By Jason Lee | Malifax Technologies

AT THE EVENT What is new from BlackBerry

2013 will be an exciting year for BlackBerry with the announcement of plans for the rest of the year and beyond during the BlackBerry Live 2013 event in Orlando, Florida. The Canadian based company is reconnecting with its customers by the Keep Moving projects headed by BlackBerry Global Creative Director, Alicia Keys.

The General Session kicked off the event by providing insights into the future of BlackBerry; BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) 10.1, availability of BlackBerry 10.1 on BlackBerry Z10 devices, BlackBerry Q5 handset, BlackBerry Messager (BBM) Channels, BBM Cross-platform for iOS and Android devices and the amazing QNX™ technology that powers the new BlackBerry 10 platform.

The 3 day event also included Breakout and hands-on sessions, BlackBerry Jam General and Breakout sessions, BlackBerry Live Showcase, Jam Space and live interviews. There was also the Keep Moving experience produced by Alicia Keys at Universal Studios Florida for all the event attendees.

Hospitals in the U.S. lose $8.3 billion using old technology

By Byron Acohido | USAToday.com

SEATTLE — U.S. physicians and hospitals are in the digital dark ages when it comes to using the latest mobile devices and Internet services to deliver patient care.

As a result, U.S. hospitals are absorbing an estimated $8.3 billion annual hit in lost productivity and increased patient discharge times, according to a Ponemon Institute survey of 577 health care professionals, released Tuesday to CyberTruth.

Hospitals continue to struggle with security and privacy concerns arising from the mainstreaming of social media at a time when federal rules carry the threat of steep fines for violating patient privacy.

The study, sponsored by tech security firm Imprivata, shows that clinicians waste an average of 46 minutes per day waiting for patient information. The main reasons: reliance on inefficient pagers, no Wi-Fi access, deficient e-mail and bans on use of personally owned devices.

That adds up to a productivity loss of $900,000 per year for the typical hospital — or more than $5.1 billion annually across the health care industry.

"The only industry that uses pagers pervasively is health care," Imprivata CEO Omar Hussain says. "Everyone else has moved to forms of communications that are faster and quicker."

Hospitals fritter away an additional $3.2 billion by continuing to rely on clunky communications systems as part of the patient discharge process. An estimated 37 minutes of the average discharge time of 102 minutes is due to waiting for hospital staff to respond with information necessary for the patient's release.

This lengthy discharge process costs the U.S. hospital industry $3.2 billion annually in lost revenue, the study found.

"If the technology was a little better and less restrictive, that's where the value add would occur," says Larry Ponemon, of the Ponemon Institute. "The goal is to maximize face time with patients. I think that could be achieved by having better technology."

Beaufort Memorial Hospital, a 197-bed facility in Beaufort, S.C., with a staff of 1,300, including 150 physicians, is a case in point.

The hospital recently implemented a secure-texting system that enables doctors and nurses to use text messaging on personally owned iPhones for business communications. The fix was simple: a Web application, downloaded from the Apple Store, that encrypts all messages and stores them in an archive that can be audited.

"The manufacturing and banking industries have been doing these things for a long time," says Edward Ricks, Beaufort's chief information officer. "These technologies aren't new. It's just that the culture for using them to improve workflows hasn't happened in hospital culture."

Beaufort also replaced its aging in-house network, in which doctors had to memorize multiple logons to access records in different departments. Today, the hospital uses a new "virtualized desktop" and "single sign-on" system. Simple computing devices are located in all rooms and at all nurses stations. Each staffer has a single logon to access records in different departments, and can do so from and device.

"We've seen a great improvement in workflows for physicians and nurses," Ricks says. "Folks will do the right thing if you give them the right tools."

The Obama administration has supplied a juicy carrot for others to follow suit. In 2009, President Obama signed into law the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, allocating $19 billion to promote the wider use of electronic medical records.

Under a federal program referred to as "Meaningful Use," doctors can get reimbursed for demonstrating increased adoption and use of electronic medical records.

"Meaningful use is forcing the health industry to adopt new technologies to make more patient information available in real time and improve communications," says Hussain.

Sweeping change is not likely to happen overnight. Jeremy Delinsky, chief technology officer at Athenahealth, which supplies electronic medical record systems, notes that there is no infrastructure for physicians to easily share patient information.

Someone from, say, Boston, who falls ill while on vacation in Phoenix, would have a difficult time getting the family physician to send health records to the attending physician in Arizona. This could present enormous problems for patients with chronic conditions or complicated medical histories, he says.

"Health care is incredibly complex," Delinsky observes. "Technology innovators must contend with regulatory restrictions and run interference with insurance companies. These compounding factors make it very difficult to digitally advance the way patients receive care."