Jquery

jQuery is a lightweight JavaScript library that emphasizes interaction between JavaScript and HTML. It was released in January 2006 at BarCamp NYC by John Resi
If you want download  please check here.

Just as CSS separates “display” characteristics from the HTML structure, jQuery separates the “behavior” characteristics from the HTML structure. For example, instead of directly specifying the on-click event handler in the specification of a button element, a jQuery driven page would first identify the button element, and then modify its on-click event handler. This separation of behavior from structure is also referred to as the principle of Unobtrusive JavaScript.

jQuery contains the following features:

* DOM element selections using the cross-browser open source selector engine Sizzle, a spin-off out of jQuery project
* DOM traversal and modification (including support for CSS 1-3 and basic XPath)
* Events
* CSS manipulation
* Effects and animations
* Ajax
* Extensibility
* Utilities – such as browser version and the each function.
* JavaScript Plugins

jQuery usually exists as a single JavaScript file, containing all the common DOM, Event, Effects, and Ajax functions. It can be included within any web page by using the following mark-up:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/path/to/jQuery.js”></script>

To execute a function ‘myfunc’ immediately after the page is loaded (called the ready handler in jQuery lingo):
$(document).ready(function() {
myfunc();
});
jQuery has two styles of interaction:

* via the $ function, which is a factory method for the jQuery object. These functions, often called commands, are chainable; they each return the jQuery object
* via $.-prefixed functions. These are utility functions which do not work on the jQuery object per se.

A typical workflow for manipulation of multiple DOM nodes begins with $ function being called with a CSS selector string, which results in the jQuery object referencing zero or more elements in the HTML page. This node set can be manipulated by applying instance methods to the jQuery object, or the nodes themselves can be manipulated. For example:

$(“div.test”).add(“p.quote”).addClass(“blue”).slideDown(“slow”);

…finds the union of all div tags with class attribute test and all p tags with class attribute quote, adds the class attribute blue to each matched element, and then slides them down with an animation. The $ and add functions affect the matched set, while the addClass and slideDown affect the referenced nodes.

The methods prefixed with $. are convenience methods or affect global properties and behaviour. For example, the following is an example of the map function called each in jQuery:

$.each([1,2,3], function() {
document.write(this + 1);
});

… writes 234 to the document.

It is possible to perform Ajax routines using the $.ajax and associated methods to load and manipulate remote data.

$.ajax({
type: “POST”,
url: “some.php”,
data: “name=John&location=Boston”,
success: function(msg){
alert( “Data Saved: ” + msg );
}
});

… will request some.php with parameters name=John and location=Boston and when the request is finished successfully, the response will be alerted.

Here is a simple good JQuery demo for an expanable sidebarmenu, including animation, button event, ….
http://www.vimeo.com/116991/

And he has brought a lot of example to aware us  “ Predict the future, is to invent it.”
Examples: 30 years ago, Apple computer TV commercial predict the notebook will be the trend for the future, as well as digital vs. film photography, desktop vs. press publishing, LEDs vs. light bulbs, twitter vs. newsroom and the battery due …….

The computer improved performance 100% in every 2 years during the last 15 years, the memory cost drop down to  almost zero per K…those are the evidence, people cannot image the prediction will come true. The only thing we have to do is start from low end application, try, carry on and final get to the target.

Recently, iPhone is another success example. We can find out any new communication technology if it can be applied to our daily usage seamlessly and will give us convenience and added value in our life, which will bring in SUCCESS.

Some recently hot topics like multi user and touch less big screen, geo-location related products (good for marketing),  bracelet cell phone, flexible and foldable OLED plastic display, e-newspaper…..those will be born several years later or launched. And like many films create the future scene by visual effects to predict our future……those is our inspiration. What is our future… let us use our imagination, inspiration on our daily life to predict and create our future.

New technology bring us a lot of added values, but everything will have both sides, pro and con. Like the geo_location product  lead a privacy argument, the expertise predict in the future, people will have less and less privacy. We need adjust and get a balance point to welcome the new born technologies in multimedia.

Productions on the Auto-stereoscopic display are still similar, like  shooting by arrange 2 camera side by side , Lorea 3D lenses on SLR camera, taking 2 pic separately with a similar angle, or the modern way, 3DeeCamera- a software which is developed by Spatial View and specially working on the iPhone. It make the production much easy, affordable, and it can be integrated to the daily used machine. It is an brill ant example on the application and marketing.

Besides on the display shooting production. Spatial View covered the post-production too. They have developed several plug in (SVI) for the professional designer in the post-production, like Flash, After Effect, 3Dmax, Maya and the Cinama4D. It is very helpful for these products to grow, encourage the designers and the animators produce more quality display source to reach a win-win situation. They even provide a free download on some of the plug-ins.

The 3D game business is another growing fast category, they have over 30 popular games support their products. Why it is so successful? They provide their own “Driver Shim” bridge video drive and the games. For the mobile games – they support by an view SDK.   Since Spatial View is so clever to cover and support the most modern and updated media. Great success is sure!

Today’s Multimedia Pioneer lesson,  we have  our guest speaker, James Hurley who if form Spatial View. So I  have chance to try the products on the iPhone and the laptop. It is amazing good and handy to achieve the 3D effect. But I don’t know whether I can longtime continuously watching. This is what I doubt. And for all the 3D guru or enthausiastors, you can get more information in productions and the tricks with the Spatial View porducts from this site, 3dbarn.com.

Technology doesn’t to be brand new, how to adapte the changes and how to smartly applied to the selective field to develop and support the productions are the keys to success in nowadays multimedia industry.

hand get in to move stream

As one of the Sheridan College student in Interactive Multimedia-It is our pleasure having  a field trip to visit Gesturetek on last Friday. Just at the front door, we are very exciting to try the features and effects on the Gesturetek Monitor and jam up the front entry blocking the people’s traffic already.  It is a big sign – people are so interested in this kind of pioneer innovation and really want to try it. And our trip is held by the president and he try to show us as much as possible they did in the past. So many…. and the applications are so wild… & interesting. It inspired me I can apply these features in the future promotion campaigning. And the most important thing is we get their sponsor our group in software and hardware support for this term’s  group project in the Premier Award Ceremony.

GestureTek™ is the pioneer, patent-holder and world-leader in camera-enabled gesture-recognition technology for presentation and entertainment systems.

Their most unique feature is using the gesture to replace all the input methods, like the mouse, keyboard, button control, wheel…etc. only use your finger or your body movement to take over all the I/O between you and the computer.

The company’s multi-patented video gesture control technology (VGC) lets users control multi-media content, access information, manipulate special effects, even immerse themselves in an interactive 3D virtual world (green background chroma keying to isolate the player)– simply by moving their hands or body.  They deliver Wii-like gesture-control without the need to wear, hold or touch anything.

The media are very wild, like interactive multi-media displays, kiosks, exhibits, digital signs and advertisements, virtual gaming systems and other interactive surface computing solutions, many with multi-touch interactivity. They are installed in museums, science centers, amusement parks, trade shows, retail locations, bars & nightclubs, real estate presentation centers, corporate showrooms, boardrooms, digital signage networks and other public spaces such as airports and stadiums.  They’re also revolutionizing television production, game development, advertising, virtual videoconferencing, and even the health-care sector, by applying our technology in unique and innovative ways. Amassing successfully!

The basic theory is very simple, using Infra red instrument to detect the motion or gesture. And it will not be interrupted by the actual full color image. And it was built in so many format , like ground, ceiling, cube, table, rear projection, matrix surrounding sensor…to meet the different requirement.

Recently, they have more precise 3D sensor and camera to achieve this field. 3D application is coming…in addition, the multi-touch function of the big screen and let multi-user to work on same machine at the same time…

And our group is very lucky , we get more detailed information about our project , like how to using their built in effects and how to bridge their engine by the Flash , XML and the engine to handle multi-layers of effect and show us a lot of examples to broaden our horizon.

I have a little bit disappointing on the click and select function on the gesturetek technologies . The accuracy of the motion a bit off and the response still a bit slow…there still have some room for improvement. But I think it will be solved by the more advance and higher resolution camera or detector to detect the motion more accurately. Detect the 3D dimension more precisely and can form a more delicate and sophisticated system in click  select function too. Follow the price drop on the high resolution camera , projector, and the popularity increment . The machine price will drop too.

You can share our photos in here.

The potential of the usage of the QRCode is very wide, since it is free of charge, and the involved equipment (mobile camera phone) is handy and common. In Japan, the application of the advertisement and the large information labeling are proofed very successfully.
Why we need the QR code? Since it is very convenient and application is unlimited, it can capture the information anywhere, anytime by our daily used camera cell phone in. Just like take a snapping shoot. Then you can keep all the information to your cell pone. You don’t need to remember the information, example the contact information, the URL, etc…and you won’t lost any information and the information will be specific too. It is a killer application for our convenience . In the meantime,  it can help the marketing guy checking the distribution and volume of the sales through the QR code arrangement and the collection of the data through the Internet. Like Gallerie red wine sales campaign. Let the buyer scan the QRcode to show the weekly draw page and winner list. check here to find the reference informaion.
Since Japan have most advance technology and the high popularity of mobile phone, so the QR code is widely applied in Japan rather than in North America. Canada needs work harder on this…

iPhone

Recently, iPhone is  the most successfully launched enterprise smart phone. Their major competitor , like Black berry target on the business side rather than the fun smart phone side. So their target audience is different.

The trend of the development of the future mobile phone:
1.    high end MP3 player,
2.    gesture control in applications & game development, like the Ninja Strike Airtime, a killer application for gesture recognition…use the camera to capture the flow of movement and integrated in the game…
3.    GPS tracking is applied on tracking your kids and the seniors how and where they go,
4.    Geo-casting is used to find out the volume and distribution of the potential clients.
5.    The real time videoconference calls for the deaf. This technology invade by Mobiles which is use a new way to compress the signal and let the signal go smoothly in real time over the phone and under the normal bandwidth.

The input method of the smart phones is the biggest problem. Blackberry’s Hardware keyboard and the virtual keyboard on iPhone are not perfect too. Voice capture technology is limited by the noise control. The text entry in cell phone still  has room to  improve. Hope that the rollable display will solve this problem and the applications, which are limited by the size of the display.

The future development of the iPhone application are limited by un-supporting the Flash developer and the limited amount license from Apple. Those are the money politic issues. Technically, Flash is supported and can be used on the iPhone application, and make more developer can be involved in the development.