Sydney Design Award Winner

We are super excited to have been announced as a winner of the Sydney Design Awards for the nsquared digitable55. Of course we always believed we had an awesome digital table product that we know our costumers love. To have the design validated by a panel of design experts makes the team here at nsquared extremely happy.

As a quick reminder of the product and the process of building the product watch this short video about the the nsquared digitable55.

Finally here is a picture of our industrial designer, Hayley Wood, and project director Neil Roodyn collecting the award earlier this week at the design awards event.

If you would like to find out more about the nsquared digitable55 or other interactive digital tables please get in touch.

Shortlisted for the 2014 Sydney Design Awards

As many of you will know, we've recently launched the nsquared digitable55.
We are excited to be working with a number of customers already but the bigger news for today is that the digitable55 has been officially shortlisted for the 2014 Sydney Design Awards!

You can view the entry (and vote) for the nsquared digitable55 here .

How it all works.

Once our entry was accepted it was open for rating along with the other entries. They will be rated
by the design100 judging panel, respected industry members and the marketplace. Once all ratings are in, the scores will be averaged across the three respective ratings to ensure that the Awards showcase the best entry as determined by all three panels.
Rating closes on 17 August, 2014 and we understand that the top five rated entries in each category will be named finalists. We're hoping to be on the podium with other winners at the Awards Presentation on 20 August 2014. Time will tell...

Making large format multi-user screens easier to use

Shared screens should be accessible

The face of technology has changed quickly since the invention of the first computers and it continues to do. So that we can continue to get the benefits of the new platform offerings we need to move our management policies forward in keeping with the use case scenarios of the various devices.

Which user should log in?

Large format displays driven by touch input are being placed into meeting rooms, foyers, and other shared spaces. Increasingly they’re placed in these spaces with the specific intent that several people will use them simultaneously and collaboratively without intermediary devices such as the keyboard and mouse.  Multi user screens, particularly those in horizontal format, are designed to enhance conversations and communication. Conversations flow more naturally and meetings can come to resolution more effectively and efficiently.

To provide their full design benefit these devices need to be easily accessible and available for anyone that comes into the space, as are whiteboards, phones and light.

In an enterprise environment this means a couple of things:

1. The large format shared-screen computer should not be domain joined. 

2. Any network resources required for the screen to operate need to be provided to the PC that is driving the screen.

This thinking represents a new way forward and a change in the way all computers in an organisation are treated equally. Shared computer experiences are a different use case to personal devices and need to have different permissions set.

If you want to find out more get in touch with us at nsquared.

nsquared maps can read GeoRSS feeds

Did you know....... GeoRSS feeds can be displayed in nsquared maps.

GeoRSS feeds are a great way to include location information for web based data. Each location can have associated text and image data, so a GeoRSS feed can provide information on the map about each point.

The admin tool provided with nsquared maps allows you to add the data from any GeoRSS feed to the maps displayed on your digital tables.

Some examples of where we have seen this used are:

• Real estate agents provide all the properties for sale in a GeoRSS feed that can then be plotted on the map.
• Nation wide retailers provide a GeoRSS feed of all of their store locations to display on the map
• Emergency services provide a GeoRSS feed of incidents as they happen, these incidents can be seen as they occur on the map
• Photographers use GeoRSS to add location information to all of the images they store online. The images can then be displayed on the map.
• A manufacturer's support team uses a GeoRSS feed to provide information on all of the support calls that require a site visit. The information about each call can be displayed on the map at the correct location.

With nsquared maps you can easily add the GeoRSS information to the map on your large interactive touch screen with no programming. Simply add the URL of the web feed to the admin tool and configure the way you'd like the data to be displayed.

Find out more about nsquared maps here

Celebrate Australia Day with nsquared

While nsquared is a global company we are proud to have our development team in Australia. January 26th is Australia Day and we have created some fun educational content packs to help you get in the spirit and celebrate Australia day with us on your touch screens and digital tables.

Celebrate Australia Day

With nsquared makewords you can learn to spell Australian animals, places and artefacts.
Try to collect the correct number of Australian icons in nsquared herding.
Compete with your friends to match up all the Australian objects in nsquared snap.
Try to put together the nsquared Australia puzzle in nsquared jigsaw.

Happy Australia Day

If you are in Australia these packs give you the perfect excuse to get out of the sun for a few hours in the heat of the day and keep celebrating.
If you are in colder climes, then wrap up warm and learn more about Australia with your friends around the screen.

Find out more and download our free Windows 8 education apps here.

How to power up your presentations with the humble USB stick.

that you can load content from a USB stick into nsquared presenter, nsquared thoughts, nsquared documents and nsquared attractor!

USB sticks are common tools for all of us. We use them as a quick way of storing and accessing content that needs to be available when we’re on the move between our desks, and homes, and our meetings. 

With nsquared software, you can use your USB drive to easily and quickly bring fresh new content and ideas to the table.

Places and situations we’ve seen this surprisingly powerful functionality being used are:

Reception areas, Waiting rooms and Sales spaces. Quickly refresh or update messaging by connecting a pre-loaded USB drive to nsquared attractor for instant, fresh results.

Project meeting spaces where attendees bring individually created content to the table for presentation and discussion. Concepts are quickly crystallised when USB content can be accessed  and shared on demand.

Real Estate sales presentations in which the Agent quickly wants to show clients some fresh and exclusive new options that might not available in the organisation’s file system. Personal or proprietary content can be displayed almost instantly when a USB drive is connected.

University group project meetings in which all team members bring their contributions to the table to share and discuss their work. Several USB drives can be plugged in simultaneously.

Product comparison discussions where fresh up to date content can be displayed on the table to make web site development decisions easier because they’re based on relatively concrete visuals from a USB drive, rather than abstract verbal discussion.

We are sure there are many more situations in which being able to load USB content is really useful and we’d like to hear about them from you. 

Drop us a line at info@nsquaredsolutions.com, or post your comments below :-)

Your digital tables are safe when using nsquared software

nsquared software innately prevents the introduction of malware to your digital table whether it’s a Samsung SUR40, Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC. 

How does it work to prevent members, guests or students from making things crazy, I hear you ask?

It’s simple. nsquared software doesn’t display pop ups, or files that are irrelevant to the contextual case for which it’s designed.  Files that are relevant (such as images, videos, PDFs and MS Office files) are displayed as rendered images of those files, not live files, and any links are inactivated. This means that there isn’t an opportunity to click on malware executable files disguised as harmless links in Word, Excel, Powerpoint or PDF files.

nsquared maps and nsquared web, both of which display content directly from the world wide web, block pop-ups. This means that in User mode, there is no way for any of your members or guests to activate malware (or any other software) installations. 

Even if a USB stick containing malware files is introduced, the only files that will be recognized and rendered are PDFs, image and video files, and MS Office files. The software isn’t designed to seek or display other files (such as .exe files) so even if malware files are present, they won’t be recognized or rendered by the software.

When using nsquared software the security of your digital table and network is honoured by design. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us 

nsquared presenter for iPhone

As a seasonal gift from nsquared we are happy to offer you the iPhone version of nsquared presenter for free.
With nsquared presenter for iPhone you can send images and movies directly to your digital tables, touch screens and presentation screens that are running nsquared presenter.

iPhone 5s running nsquared presenter

Download nsquared presenter for iPhone from here.

You can send content from your iPad to nsquared presenter screens

The Apple iPad is found in many meeting rooms being clutched by individuals as their life support systems. The iPad contains their email, calendar, and a range of other important business documents. Yet in a meeting the iPad represents an isolating and personal device. With nsquared presenter digital tables, interactive touch screens and presentation screens can display content from an iPad to be shared with the group for discussion.
Here some examples of how people are using nsquared presenter and iPads:

• A sales person keeps a range of product images on their iPad and shares the relevant images on a digital table with customers as required.
• A sales team collates ideas from their personal devices to a digital table to create a new presentation.
• Students collect research materials on their iPads and then gather around their digital table in the library to create group projects. 
• A teacher shares question sheets from their iPad to the digital table for a group of students to discuss and answer.
• A designer shares sketches from their iPad with clients around a touch table.
• A project team share progress reports from their iPads to the digital table in their meeting room in their weekly status meetings.

Sharing content from iPad to digital tables using nsquared presenter

We are growing again!

With more and more digital tables being loved by our customers we are growing our team again. We need a salesperson and a graduate developer to join our team.

If you are looking for a challenging new role in a team that is intent on putting shared screen technology in more places then please get in touch.

We are recruiting a junior developer to help us with development of vision based solutions using technologies such as kinect.

We are also looking for an energetic young sales person that can help our team with customer interactions, product demonstrations and closing deals.

Both of our new team members will need be Australian citizens or hold Australian Permanent residency visas.

If you, or someone you know, are interested in joining nsquared please send us a cover letter and your resume to jobs@nsquaredsolutions.com

You can load PowerPoint files with nsquared thoughts

PowerPoint files are everywhere in the workplace. PowerPoint is used to describe the financial position of a company, the sales pitch for a product, the concept for a new project, and countless other scenarios. With nsquared thoughts you can load those PowerPoint slide decks directly onto your digital table and annotate them as a group. Here some examples of how people are using nsquared thoughts and PowerPoint files:

1. A sales team discusses how to improve existing presentations around their touch table.
2. A sales person presents ideas to clients, the clients get involved with directly annotating the slides themselves
3. A project team incorporates slides from a PowerPoint deck into a conversation involving other sketches on their digital table.
4. A management team uses slides from their company vision PowerPoint deck to determine the validity of new project proposals.
5. A financial team uses PowerPoint slides to discuss the quarterly results of their company subsidiaries at their digital table.
6. An investment team discusses the different pitches they have heard each week and display the PowerPoint slides from each pitch on their table.

Find out more about nsquared thoughts 

Introducing "Bet You Didn't Know"

A weekly segment that goes more in depth to the functionality and capabilities of nsquared software. Keeping you in touch with your digital table and helping you to get more from your interactive, shared experience.

“Bet You Didn’t Know” will introduce you to all the latest application releases, newest features, updates, bug fixes, as well give you a comfortable familiarity with your nsquared admin portal.

Learn how you can WOW colleagues, co-workers, customers and clients with your leading edge skills.

Stay in tune and in touch and turn that Bet you Didn’t into a Bet you Did! 

An introduction to Digital Tables

Enhance the meeting room
conversation with a
digital table

A digital table defines an obvious meeting place, offers a true multi-user experience and enhances collaborative engagement. If you’ve started to think about purchasing a digital table then this article will help you decide what type of hardware and software you will need.

Tabletop computing and digital tables are becoming integrated into business life and work places at an increasing pace. The integration of these devices into business, education and sales spaces is largely in recognition of the increased value of collaborative activities over directed activities.

Where we’ve been using interactive whiteboards and relying on a single person to talk us through a PowerPoint presentation, we’re now engaging in higher levels of discussion for information sharing and problem solving. The technology needs to support and enhance this shift in behavior. While interactive whiteboards offer opportunities for some interaction (by one person who is often facing away from the audience) they cannot replace the humble table as a meeting place and they do not encourage face-to-face communication. 

Digital tables are obvious meeting spaces. The form factor of a table is perfect for face-to-face conversations and true multi-user experiences. The digital tabletop further supports and enhances conversations and collaboration by providing quick access to resources. Business, education and sales spaces consistently report increased engagement and long-term connection of participants interacting with digital tables, with corresponding increases in sales revenue and educational success.

Multi-user devices are designed to bring people together and help them to engage and connect at much deeper levels than they would normally. When single user devices are present, they often detract from collaborative experiences, providing distractions from the core conversation and in turn reducing the value of the conversation. Think about the differences in interactions between sitting around a dinner table and standing in front of a digital sign.

A digital table at an auto show

Microsoft released the first commercially available multi-user product, named “Microsoft Surface”, in 2008. 

Five years later Microsoft Surface’s successor, the Samsung SUR40, still provides a premium experience, though in a significantly sleeker form factor than its forebear. Following the lead of Microsoft and Samsung, various other hardware providers have also created digital tabletops. Some of them utilise vision systems and others continue with time-honoured and proven touch detection methods. Each has its benefits and drawbacks. These will be discussed briefly in the following passages.

While there is magic in the hardware, it is the software interface that will determine how the devices can be used and whether or not your space is set up for productive, engaging collaboration and discussion. The design of the software interface will determine the level of engagement and productivity that can be gained from your investment and whether or not your space is set up for true multi-user experiences. 

Multi Touch or Multi-User?

As a first step, decide what you need to achieve. Do you want to create:

1. a space that enables people to browse digital content and discover information; or
2. a space that enables several people to interact with each other and digital content seamlessly and simultaneously?

If you’re looking to achieve the latter, you’re looking to create a multi user space.

Digital multi-user spaces enable discussion and collaboration around digital content. To ensure that everyone around the table has equal access to what’s on the screen, you’ll require a table form factor with massive multi-touch capabilities, and a 360-degree software interface. 

How many touch points are required?

For premium experiences, we recommend that you allow for five to 10 touches per person that you plan to have around the table. That said, the decision will be highly budget dependent and for groups of two to ten people, the device and software both need to be capable of responding to a minimum of three simultaneous touches per person. This is especially true for smaller groups of two to four people. In a few cases, you might be able to get away with catering for fewer touches per person. This is generally due to the fact that as groups of adults get larger in number, less people in the group are likely to interact with the device simultaneously. Allow for three simultaneous screen touches per person at a minimum. 

Benefits of multi-user screen spaces and digital tabletops

A multi-user experience is one in which several people will be working on the same screen at the same time. A great multi-user experience can be created with a canvas where all users can face each other to directly interact while still sharing, creating and annotating digital content. Placing interactive screens horizontally, to act as the table around which the users can gather and engage, can create this digital canvas. 

In a sales meeting a digital table can help focus
people's attention on the content

The horizontal screen becomes a shared space for all the users to work together and focus on the task at hand. 

Compare this with many meeting room experiences where the participants arrive with personal devices (laptops, tablets, phones) and the activity on each device is hidden from the other people. This often leads to more distractions during the meeting as people start answering emails, chatting on IM or even other personal tasks rather than being focused on the meeting.

By keeping the people focused on the content, meetings around a digital table should be faster and more focused than those using an interactive whiteboard as the focus for the meeting.

The benefit of a table hosting the content, as opposed to a vertical screen, is that people are face to face and no one has their back to the rest of the team at any time. Vertical screens are often used for presentations, which are an exercise in pushing information out rather than creating a discussion involving everyone at the table. Horizontally mounted screens promote information sharing and problem solving better than vertically mounted screens. 

Screen Size

We consider 30” to be the minimum size required for a good experience by more than two users. Bigger is not necessarily better, once a horizontal screen gets past around 60” some areas on the screen will become hard to access by everyone sitting around the screen. Once a screen is bigger than 100” then the software needs to be designed with the consideration there will likely be an area in the center of the screen that will be hard for anyone to reach even if they’re standing. For digital tables, the most functional screen sizes are between 30 and 65 inches.

Screen orientation

For a true multi-user experience, the screen will need to be mounted horizontally like a table. This allows people to sit or stand around the device and meet as they always have, face to face around a table, and without extraneous distractions.

Placing the screen horizontally changes the way people can engage with the content.

Remember that as soon as there is any vertical component in the mounting (such as in the case of a lectern), it’s difficult to see the content on the screen from all angles and sides. Make sure that your multi-user space offers a horizontally mounted screen for multi-user engagement.

Do you want object recognition capabilities?

Do you want internal users to have quick, direct access to their own content?

Do you want to be able to place content or objects onto the table and invoke different behaviours? Do you want to be able to put your phone on the table and access specified content? If you want any of those features, you’ll need object recognition capabilities that only a vision system with camera-like functionality will provide.

Lighting

If the space has a lot of natural sunlight, or is flooded with halogen or other incandescent lighting, and the hardware you’re considering operates with an infrared vision system (such as the Samsung SUR40), you’re going to have to make some choices. 

These will most likely involve considering removing or reducing the infrared light sources by replacing halogen or other incandescent lighting with LED or CFC lighting; and (or also) the installation of physical screens like walls, or specialized infrared filtering film (3M’s PR 40 and PR 70 window films are known to block infrared sufficiently in several cases). Work with your supplier to determine what the best way forward is for you.

Software

The most important piece to the puzzle is the software. Just as the hardware needs to promote face-to-face interaction, so does the software. Whether the software is custom built or an off the shelf solution, it should always enable multiple people to interact simultaneously, and at least as they would if the table wasn’t a digital one.

Good multi-user experiences are those in which each person around the table can access the interface equally and easily no matter where they are located around the table. Everyone should be able to consider the content the right way up. No one should have to look at anything upside down. The software should automatically adjust items to the orientation of each individual viewing it.

In addition, those same people need to be able to rely on the device to respond without lag to each and every touch made. People-to people and people to digital content interactions should be intuitive, smooth, and relatively effortless.

Custom Build or Off the Shelf (OTS) Software?

The budget you have available will always be a factor for consideration. Generally speaking, off the shelf software will always be financially less taxing than having custom software built for your organization. Procurement times should also be far less for off the shelf solutions than for custom builds. As time goes on and the market for digital tables increases, it stands to reason that there will be more off the shelf solutions available.

Digital Table at Australian Museum in Sydney

There will always be cases where custom builds are required. That said, unless you already have significant experience using tabletop computers in day-to-day business activities, it’s always best to start with off the shelf offerings that provide close to what you think you need. Check the features. Many applications provide administrator tools that allow you to customize certain aspects of the application for your preferences or brand. This way you can spend time assessing whether you really need all of the features on your wish list, and whether the custom build you’d envisioned will be justified in terms of return on your investment (ROI). Good off the shelf software may be all you need and at the very least will allow you to determine your absolute requirements at significantly lower costs and delivery time frames than those associated with custom builds.

Sharing content with personal devices

People will often arrive to a meeting with content on their personal devices that they have gathered or created. A good tabletop experience will enable those people to easily transfer that content onto the digital table for the conversation. It should be a single hit transfer, where the materials being shared can be placed on the table without the need to constantly refer back to the personal device. Once the content is on the table, it is best for the personal device to be put away. Private personal devices are still an important part of the digital world and digital tables should interact with those devices in a way that promotes the content being shared when suitable. Ensure the software enables quick and easy transfer of content between personal and corporate devices where relevant use cases exist. 

Conclusion

Every situation and scenario is different, but wherever you are creating indoor spaces for people to gather in order to collaborate you can expect digital tables to enhance that experience. In the coming years you will start to see more and more digital tables emerge in meeting rooms, libraries, schools, universities and even as peoples’ work desks and in their homes.

Depending on the environment and number of people involved, different hardware options need to be considered. The software should always account for people approaching the table from any side and work seamlessly for all the participants around the table.

For More Information

If you have any more questions regarding about digital tables or which solution is right for you, contact us at nsquared:

Web: http://www.nsquaredsolutions.com 
Email: info@nsquaredsolutions.com 

AU Phone: +61 2 9262 3386 
USA Phone: +1 206 236 0354 

Windows 8 Education Apps

At nsquared we have been busy getting a range of educational applications ready for Windows 8. 
A number of the new computers being released are incredibly exciting, providing new ways for multiple people to interact around a single screen. Devices such as the Sony Tap 20 and the Lenovo Horizon will bring small digital tables into the home and classroom at very affordable prices.
Our history producing software for digital tables, such as Microsoft PixelSense, has lead to creating some truly outstanding multi-user experiences for Windows 8 devices. 

To start the new year we have released six new applications aimed at the younger audience, that is learning to read, write and count. These applications are great for small group learning.

nsquared letters 
A free form language application designed for use with or without guidance. The nsquared letters application allows students to explore words in virtually any language that uses the Latin alphabet. 
Get it here

nsquared numbers 
A free-form application that can be used to teach basic mathematical concepts. How many ways can your students make the sum of ‘7’, or ‘48’, or any other number you’d like to explore? How many ways can they create those same results? 
Get it here

nsquared make words
This structured educational game will help students learn object recognition and differentiation, and improve their recall and spelling. nsquared makewords has the ability to switch between a range of content packs through the menu and download new content as it's released.
Get it here

nsquared herding
nsquared herding is designed to develop numeracy, pattern matching and object recognition skills.

Designed for one to four players (depending on the size of your device, you may only be able to have up to two players), herding requires each player to collect the correct numbers of each target object and place them into their own playing area.

Get it here

nsquared snap
nsquared snap is designed to develop pattern matching, memory, and object recognition skills.
This turn based memory game requires up to four students to match overturned cards. Only two cards may be turned over at any time in an attempt to find a matching pair.
Each player must take a turn individually, with a point being awarded when a pair of cards is matched successfully.
Get it here

nsquared missing card
nsquared missing card is designed to develop pattern matching and object recognition skills.
This is a multi-player game for up to four students. Players must chose the best match from three options presented to them. 
Get it here