The NEO3DO Tablet

For the last few weeks I have been taking the new NEO3DO glasses-free (meaning you can see stereo 3D without 3D glasses) tablet on an educator’s test drive, critically kicking its tires and examining its potential for K-12 and university classrooms. NEO3DO is an “autostereoscopic” android-based tablet developed by a team of San Diego innovators.

I have known for some time about this new product. I was intrigued by its promise, but too invested in doubt to take any action at first. But then, driven by pure “technology director” instinct, followed by cat-like curiosity after viewing scenes from this video, and after having solicited feedback from dear friends on the West Coast who had actually played with these devices, I took the plunge. My impatience got the best of me, so I seized the opportunity to play with one, once offered the chance.

So how did the NEO3DO fare in my rigorous test drive? Stay tuned for next week’s remarkable post…

On the Road Again

I’m doing quite a bit of presenting this year on Teaching and Learning with Depth (transformative teaching and learning using stereo 3D). Here is a current list showing my speaking schedule through February, in case you are interested in attending. If you are in the vicinity, it’s also always a good excuse for an opportunity to meet and have some coffee or conversation.

Conference	Location and Date	Topic(s)
CTEA	Lakewood, CO October 3	-       Teaching with DEPTH for Technology Educators
COVD	Orlando, FL October 10	-       Experiences with Simulated 3D in Classrooms
zCon East	Boston, MA October 21	-       3D in Education: Important Things to Know about Depth-defying Learning
TIES	Minneapolis, MN December 16-17	-       Exhibit hall booth presentations (tentative)
TCEA	Austin, TX February 4	-       Depth-defying Learning with 3D (3 hour workshop)

zCon East

Here’s a free ‘happening’ event I’ll be participating in, which is scheduled for late October: zCon East.

zCon is the zSpace Developers’ Conference, a meeting place to explore immersive, lifelike and interactive technologies with the goal to accelerate the pace of innovation in manufacturing, biotechnology, architecture, government, medical, entertainment, gaming, education, and research.

zCon East brings together those at the forefront of building 3D applications on the zSpace platform. (zSpace provides a highly-­‐realistic visualization experience, enabling users to directly interact with virtual-­‐ holographic simulations as if they were real physical objects. For a virtual demonstration of zSpace, visit www.zspace.com.)

zCon East includes sessions in technical/user experience, research/academia, and business-oriented topics, conducted by 3D industry experts.  The event is scheduled for Monday, October 21, 2013 at the Microsoft NERD Center in Boston, MA -­‐ free registration is available. You can Register Here.

This event might be a fit for you if you are a (an):

• Educator dealing with complex problems that can’t always be visualized, described and solved in two dimensions.
• Student who aims to create applications of the future
• Professional interested in emerging tools that allow new human-computer interface models.
• Software company executive engaged in efforts to accelerate your company’s innovation and growth.
• Software engineer who creates state-of-the-art and next-generation 3D applications
• Investor or policy-maker who needs to understand where the future of 3D technology is headed.
• Researcher who wants to be on the forefront of a major shift in human-computer interaction.

I'll be there. If you get there, please look me up.  Let’s do coffee and conversation!

3D@ISTE 2013 (2)

Of course, not all 3D at ISTE (see last week’s post), was in the exhibit hall. There were four sessions dedicated to 3D in the conference proceedings. 

The first was an open house booth for SIG3D, the newly formed ISTE special interest group dedicated to all things 3D. I was there helping out, and it was slammed with interested educators. 

The second session was a poster session offered by SIG3D president, Nancye Blair-Black. This session was also well attended and buzzing with activity. Nancye does that to folks! 

The third session involved the initial kick-off meeting of the new SIG3D. I will write more about this event later, but it was well attended. 

The last session was a poster session dedicated to 3D printing. It was not well attended, but that made perfect sense. There were zero 3D printing companies exhibiting at this conference. ISTE is not the strongest conference for 3D printing aficionados—that’s the hallmark of technology education conferences. For an explanation, see my recent Future-Talk 3D posts (3D in Tech Ed 1 and 3D in Tech Ed 2) explaining the difference between the “technology education” and the “educational technology” marketplace.

No doubt one of the best years ever. 

3D@ISTE 2013 (1)

This year’s ISTE 2013 conference, attended by more than 18,000 educators and industry representatives, took place in sweltering San Antonio. I cannot remember as much happening in the educational 3D world since Texas Instruments proudly displayed their then nascent technologies more than three years ago.  Here’s a brief description of the many 3D happenings that were baking in the Texas sunlight.

Stalwarts in the 3D content manufacturer industry, Cyber-Anatomy and DesignMate were there. Yet, newcomers were aplenty. Zspace was the most popular new player. (I will write more about the implications of Zspace technologies for education in a future posting.) To say the least, their exhibit was boiling over with activity and interest. ISTE attendees like anything new, and Zspace came to fulfill their hopes. They demonstrated their near-holographic hardware platform and it raised the eyebrows and caught the attention of even the most discerning educators I know. 

Zspace's nnear-holographic display technology. You had to be there!

Across the exhibit hall, award-winning app producers Vito Technology were found showing off some of its apps in anaglyph format, using both iPads and an eye-catching display dome. They were offering three apps, including StarWalk (an interactive astronomy guide), SolarWalk (a 3D solar system model on steroids), and GeoWalk (an interactive globetrek allowing learners to explore new and remarkable things—like animals, plants, history, people and inventions—600 unusual objects in all).

Vito Technology's 3D iPad apps on display at ISTE

ClassTeacher Learning Systems decided to move on from FETC to the ISTE conference and were showing their 3D content for the first time at ISTE. So, too, FortunaPix offered a display in the new startups booth, showing the hundreds of 3D content titles they are just ready to push into the market.

FortunaPix's 3D content on display

 And there's more! Stay tuned for our next post...