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6.2.2009 - Mü est présenté aujourd'hui dans le cadre de Futur en Seine. Rendez vous dans le hall de la Bourse de commerce (près des Halles) à Paris.

5.18.2009 - 6minutes 40, c'est trop court ! http://bit.ly/tqYLn #pechakucha

4.23.2009 - mü a l'affiche de Pecha Kucha Paris le 28 avril http://www.pechakuchaparis.com/

4.23.2009 - Mü is on Twitter now, to keep you updated will all the next events and news. Stay tuned !

12.4.2008 - Mü overall winner of the EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards 2008 !
We are very proud and honoured to receive this award, and this is a great opportunity for us to take this project further. We spent 5 absolutely awesome days in Graz, meeting talented and passionate people from all over Europe. A huge thank and kudos to Reiner and the whole Europrix team, everything was perfect !
Have a look at the other projects on Europrix's website !

9.15.2008 - Mü received a Europrix 08 nomination !
We have the pleasure to go to the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival from November 27 - 29, 2008 in Graz, Austria.
We really are looking forward to this !

Mü will also be presented in Paris for "La fête de la science" exhibition, from November 21 - 23, 2008, in La Cité des Sciences. We'll be ready for demonstrations in the Lutin Userlab exhibit space.

We also were published in the october issue of Etapes Magazine, and in the new session of Objet Graphik.
You can find more pictures of the objects, cards and more on creabook.

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The educational purpose of MÜ is the early learning of hearing, musical and creation, through activities that can be played alone or in group.

MÜ is an installation with a tabletop tangible multi-touch interface. The table contains a square screen, with which one can interact either with fingers or with specific tangible objects. The application reacts with animated images and sounds.

Dimension-wise, material-wise and practical-wise, the table is suited for 5 – 6 years old children. Up to 4 children can be around the table, partially or totally supervised by the teacher.

The table is connected to Internet (wired or wireless connection) to send children’s works on a dedicated website available for both teachers and parents. On the website, the user will find a public promotional/shop zone and a private zone (children’s gallery, teacher’s comments...) : the goal is to create a new link between school and home.

Three key protagonists :

• Children : From 5 to 7 years old, in infant school. Goals: to interact, to learn, and to dream. To identify oneself to the characters of the tale, in order to better understand it.
• Teachers : Goals: to extend reading and tales experience in an entertaining and concrete manner. To make children discover with their senses.
• Parents : Goals: to reinforce parent’s interest in children’s learning basic skills. To involve oneself and share a story together.

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MÜ is therefore both a new educational tool for teachers and a new creative expression tool for children.

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The MÜ interface brings two different interactions into play :

• object-screen interaction : the objects must be individually identifiedby the system, as well as their position on the screen and their rotation.
• multitouch finger-screen interaction : an unlimited number of fingers can interact with elements on screen simultaneously, in order to do basic and direct interactions (pressing buttons, dragging and dropping elements, resizing an element with 2 fingers...)

There are already a number of technologies that do partially or completely these 2 kinds of interactions, or one of them, including: RFID, resistive (most commonly used), optical, acoustic (piezoelectric)...

We chose what seemed to be the most adapted technology : an optically-based solution. It means that instead of analyzing an electrical current on the screen or a radio signal, a camera is in charge of analyzing presence and position/rotation for both objects and fingers.

The most efficient and most affordable solution for us was the DI technology (Diffused Illumination). How does it works ?

• A projector throws an image behind an acrylic screen. The image is diffused by tracing paper laid on top of the acrylic screen. Between the projector and the screen, a mirror allows a shorter throw distance;
• A camera must shoot what’s happening on the screen. It is placed just underneath the projector, using the same mirror to have the whole screen shot (one can also use a wide angle lens, but at the cost of distorting the image).
• When an object or a finger is on the table, light coming from the table allows it to be identified by the camera. Specific symbols are attached on objects in order to individually identify them. The tracing paper makes these symbols recognizable only when they are directly put on the screen (otherwise, even at a small distance, they appear blurry);
• In order to have a precise view of what’s happening on the screen, we must use light that’s not already emitted by the projector, infrared light. To do so, an IR filter is placed on the camera, and IR lights illuminate the screen from behind. Thus objects and fingers capture is not affected by the image thrown by the projector.

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Here is the Concept film, a video we made to our final presentation at school.

Watch the concept film !

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Watch the demo !

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• Béatrice Lartigue, Interactive & Graphic designer + interactive project manager - www.epure.it

  After a 2-year Architecture diploma equivalent to an MS and a Webdesigner qualification, Béatrice gained knowledge of a web agency experience as employee and as a freelance Webdesigner.

  Currently in apprenticeship inside Louis Vuitton Graphic Studio, she’s working on scenography projects : wall projections, multi-touch screens applications…
  Key assets: creativeness, implication, sense of organisation.
• Pierre Thirion, Interactive & Graphic designer + Animator - www.21h42.fr

  After a 5-year diploma equivalent to an MS, and different experiences in web and interactive design (fulltime, apprenticeship or work placements), Pierre is currently working as a freelance interactive and graphic designer.

  His experience in both little and big agencies, and his technico-creative background, allows him to be very polyvalent and to adapt himself to various kind of interactive projects. He is also interested in programming, mainly AS3 and Processing.

  Key assets: user experience, creativity, curiosity, technical skills.
• Wahiba Khadri, Developer - www.doublevk.com

  After a 5-year diploma equivalent to an MS and a good experience in web development, Wahiba works now as a developer for Heaven agency in Paris (online marketing and communication).

  Wahiba develops mainly with object-oriented languages such as PHP and AS3, and also with Javascript, AJAX and XHTML. She’s also part of Shapeflow, a collective of 6 graphic designers and photographers. Key assets: open-mindedness, dynamism, adaptability and relevance.

• Erik Escoffier, Lead Developer - www.neriksworkshop.com

  Coming from the Gobelins School, Paris (5 year diploma in Multimedia Developpement equivalent to an MS), Erik is going to work in Amsterdam soon. He has an 4 year experience in web development, including 2 year in an e-learning company, where he mainly developed on the Flash platform (AS 2/3, FMS, Flex).

  Erik is particularly interested in building innovative User Interfaces notably in Rich Internet Applications. Key assets: curiosity, creativity, efficiency, user-centric approach.

• Simon Doury, Graphic designer + Developer - www.alma-vogler.com

  After a Two-Year Higher Technical Diploma in computing systems and web design, Simon graduates a 2-year course in Multimedia Design and Production at Gobelins, L’école de L’image.

  He now works at 5ème Gauche (Paris) as a web developer. Moreover, he can deal with both design and development (Actionscript, Php and Javascript). Simon is also a musician and a sound designer. Indeed, he plays electronic music in a band. Key assets: versatility, perseverance and sensitivity.

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