Hosted by Adaptive Path's Peter Merholz, our design director, Nathan Moody, will be honored to chat with such luminaries as Michele Parras of the Mobile Experience Innovation Centre, David Merrill from Sifteo (the group behind Siftables), and Johnny Lee (of WiiMote hacking fame) of Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group.

We expect the panel discussion will be cover a lot of ground between research and application, private and public computing, mobile and installation experiences, and a great overview of how human-computer interactions are evolving beyond the traditional desktop form factor. For more updates, follow @stimulant at Twitter and don't hesitate to reach out directly by emailing us at sxsw10 [at] stimulant [dot] io ... and definitely say hello if you find yourself in Austin, too!

Stimulant, in partnership with Trapeze, helped WIND Mobile extend their core brand philosophy of "The Power of Conversation" to the in-store experience with a Microsoft Surface-based assisted sales application. Surface lives in the heart of the store in most WIND Mobile retail locations, providing delightfully simple access to key product information and facilitating two-way conversation between employees and customers.

As a consultative tool, the Surface table allows customers to compare devices and plans side-by-side, helping to identify the options that work best for them. Information is made available quickly, clearly and in one layer of engagement. Stimulant worked closely with Trapeze to bring the WIND Mobile brand alive on Microsoft Surface, leveraging custom sound design, playful 2D physics and object recognition, all carefully blended into a seamless and engaging experience. The application leverages Stimulant's proprietary product comparison engine, as well as a custom content management system to enable easy updating across all stores. Like all of our projects, extra care was taken to ensure scalability and stability for years to come.

Subsequent versions of the application will focus on the customization of services and devices directly from Surface.

Stimulant created a unique Kauffman-specific filter on the Microsoft Local Impact Map so that any user can view the globe through a Kauffman-centric lens, which highlights countries around the world where the Kauffman Foundation is making a direct impact. Building on the previous functionality of the Microsoft Local Impact Map, this new version provides multiple users an engaging way to navigate to any country and read stories, while simultaneously flipping through images and watching videos that enhance each story.

Powerful data visualization filters enable a visual comparison of technology metrics between countries, revealing disparities and underscoring the importance of Kauffman's work. By allowing each user to view the globe through their own individual lens and choose their area of interest, and providing multiple lenses to focus on different stories and metrics at the same time, this application remains one of Stimulant's finest examples of how multi-user interactions on Microsoft Surface can enhance a learning experience.

Products placed on the Surface are recognized automatically.

Our application allows multiple visitors to place a Kodak device on Surface at the same time and spawn an interactive deck of information specific to each device. We're thrilled to be a part of Kodak's booth as they present one of the most forward-thinking interactive product experiences at the entire show.

Kodak, a stalwart exhibitor at the annual Print tradeshow, did something different in 2009. They bucked the industry practice of bringing truly massive commercial printing presses to the show. Instead decided to attract attendee interest with final printed samples, and use a nearly all-digital environment to tell the story of the Kodak technology used to bring these printed materials to life.

Working with Kodak's marketing firm Partners + Napier, exhibit design firm Mirrorshow, and our old friends Obscura Digital, Stimulant created software for Microsoft Surface that allowed trade show attendees to simply pick up a printed sample or object, place it on Surface, and have Surface reveal details on that object's printing methods and what Kodak products were used in its manufacture. We created a byte tag recognition system that's more robust than is typical, so that even large objects could be only partially placed on Surface but still be recognized by the system. Traditional "attract modes" were replaced with local "attract messages" to entice attendees to use the table even when another user was already doing so, leveraging the inherent multi-user capabilities of Surface. Our team also externalized all content so that the client could manage all content themselves, even after the trade show doors opened.

Hundreds of trade show attendees and booth personnel used six Surface units in the Kodak booth without a hiccup during the entire show. Sales personnel found it invaluable to have such information at their fingertips without requiring printed collateral, and trade show attendees could follow along or even acquire knowledge on their own, given the utter simplicity of Stimulant's nearly-invisible interface, based on their own interests and needs.

Aside from the speakers, Eric Havir will be bringing a Surface unit for attendees to play with. Stimulant will be there showing off a never-before seen version of our Surface music application, called TouchTones (formerly ToneGrid, now redesigned and much-improved). There will be other apps to play with as well.

The session is 7:30-8:30p, but Surface will be there around 6:00-8:45p. The event is open to the public and will be in the board room at the Seattle Art Museum.

Stimulant followed up the excellent reception of theMicrosoft Local Impact Map Silverlight with a special  edition for Microsoft Surface. Drawing on our previous experience with many Surface projects, we saw incredible value in presenting this application in a new medium.

We knew that the Local Impact Map would be used to facilitate conversations about corporate social responsibility between Microsoft and representatives of governments and NGOs. How could we make the map even more collaborative, emotionally engaging, and aid in forming strong conversations around corporate citizenship?

The challenge called out for a fresh approach: build a version of the Local Impact Map for Microsoft Surface. In this way, Microsoft representatives can kick off interactions with their government and NGO contacts, letting them learn how to use the application simply by watching, and then let them explore the map as the conversation continues. All the while, the participants are literally able to look each other in the eye, and neither is in exclusive control of the device, the software, or the content. This makes for an emotionally equitable experience for all concerned. This human emotional connection and transparent communication style is exactly what Microsoft wanted to convey.

The Local Impact Map: Surface Edition shares the same hand-made look and feel as the online application, and is fed by the exact same data sources. We completely refactored the interface to make the Local Impact Map appropriate for Surface, and this laid the groundwork for further innovation.

Lenses hold details and data visualization.

We chose the metaphor of a lens as the cornerstone of our multi-user interface strategy. Onscreen lenses allow for viewing in greater detail. Each lens can even display different styles of data visualization from other lenses, rather than repainting the entire screen with a data visualization that only one user might be interested in. This also allows local content to be freely oriented towards any user. Global filters allow users to hone in on the citizenship topics that matter most to their constituents and communities. Rich support for photography and videos also helps put faces on those helped by Microsoft’s charitable efforts worldwide.

The Microsoft Local Impact Map: Surface Edition is rolled out on Surface units in Microsoft facilities all over the globe.

Here's Stimulant's Design Director, Nathan Moody, speaking about the design of Natural User Interfaces, or NUI's, at the IxDA's Interaction09 conference in Vancouver in February 2009. Thanks for all who turned out and enjoyed the talk!

We're actually bummed that the random blast of smooth jazz that started playing in the middle of the talk (around 15 minutes in) didn't come through very loudly in the mic, nor did the cameraman catch Nathan groovin' to the smoothness onstage. Ah, well, there's always Interaction10 in Savannah. Enjoy!

Interested in seeing us in person soon? You're in luck: We'll be speaking about installation/destination computing at the Event Design Summit in Los Angeles, doing a hands-on workshop at UXWeek in San Francisco, and talking about NUI at the Heartland Developer's Conference in Omaha!

Project Tuva is an interactive video application developed for Microsoft Research. It wraps up many of our team's passions in one project: history, interactive video, education, science, and rich internet applications. We are thrilled to be part of the team that brought this exciting video portal to life.

Project Tuva is an interactive video experience that makes learning about science relevant and exciting through annotations authored by researchers and subject-matter experts. Project Tuva launched with Richard Feynman's Messenger Series lectures, a cornerstone set of seven talks at Cornell University in 1964. These videos are enhanced with a number of different layers of contextual information: fully-searchable transcripts and captions, time-synchronized contextual "extras" that link to related web resources, the ability to take notes while watching, integration with Microsoft Research's own amazing World Wide Telescope project, and more.

Bill Gates, a longtime admirer of Feynman's ability to make science approachable and fun, secured the rights to footage of Feynman's Messenger lectures. Microsoft Research made this lecture series even more relevant and evocative by adding interactive visualizations, bibliographic references, web links, commentaries by subject matter experts, and even the ability to take notes while watching.

Time-synchronized links, images, captions, and visualizations aid in context and comprehension.

Stimulant then provided refinements to Project Tuva's initial interaction design, created a minimal and modern visual design, established systems for content management and editing, and developed the Silverlight online user experience. We aimed to create a flexible and reductionist visual design language that would let content be king and the video viewing experience take center stage. The app is built to scale over time, as the Feynman videos are just the tip of the iceberg.

Project Tuva is notable on several technology fronts as well. Written in Silverlight, it uses Smooth Streaming to dynamically switch between different bit rates of video without interrupting playback. This allows the video to play in a way that's more immediate than the usual buffer-then-watch online video experience. It uses a sophisticated and fully liquid layout system to adapt to different screen sizes and viewing aspect ratios. All modifications the user makes to the interface's layout are remembered between sessions. The entire application is, like most of our work, wholly data-driven, leaving many possibilities for future content needs and enhancements.

A rich, multi-track timeline keeps track of content, extras, and even user-generated notes.

One of the best aspects of this project was, in fact, our clients. Microsoft Research is full of extremely passionate, brilliant, and funny people. They brought amazing ideas to the table and really made us deliver only our best work, which is just the kind of challenge we relish. Stimulant extends kudos to their entire team for giving us the opportunity to help bring Project Tuva to life. Project Tuva debuted at the 2009 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit.

Experience Microsoft Research Project Tuva online for yourself.