Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock (and assuming your rock doesn’t have WiFi access) just knows. The news of Steve Job’s passing has exploded across the internet with tribute videos, old video viewings, and news blasts in the form of tweets, posts, and updates at an all time high. With one of the most poignant and impactful memorials ever created for… ANYONE on Apple’s homepage, the news hit the tech and consumer world with an impact that exceeded that of The King of Pop’s recent passing. But not to embark on an Apples to oranges argument, the influence of Apple Computers has had, in the tech consumer world, been undeniably profound with Steve Jobs at the forefront.

As also posted on Techzulu (with an Immersive Technologies take on the bottom of this article):

Steve Jobs, CEO, Chariman, and Co-Founder of Apple led nothing short of an extraordinary life with significant ups and downs. From sleeping on floors and collecting recyclables during his adolescent years, to being fired from the very company he founded, the peak moments of his professional career had seen him build not only THE largest computer company in the world, but also one of the most largest film studios (Pixar) as well. Upon news of his resignation as Apple’s CEO in 2011, it was also announced that Jobs was a victim of pancreatic cancer with public disclosure of his declining health. But even through that, he continued to serve as Chairman for Apple’s board of directors until the very end.

So whether you loved or hated Jobs, use a Mac or a PC, love the svelte aesthetics of your Macbook Pro, or prefer the full control of your Android based device, there is no denying Steve Jobs and Apple’s influence on the consumer tech-space. So for your reading enjoyment, we’ve compiled a list of neat Steve Jobs related factoids, some of which you may already know, some you may not. Paying respect to a truly inspirational figure.

“The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.” – President Barack Obama

R.I.P Steve Jobs 1955-2011

1. As of July 2001, Apple had over $4.2 billion in cash. Today? More than $76 billion in cash; 2 billion MORE than the US Treasury.
2. Steve Jobs studied calligraphy at Reed College and dropped out early in his educational career. He directly attributed influence a calligraphy class for the typeface and spacing of his Apple products.
3. The reaction to Steve Jobs’ death was recorded in record breaking numbers. 10,000 tweets per second following news of his death on Wednesday night.
4. The trending search item: “pancreatic cancer” reached Google’s rankings at #2 in a span of one night.
5. As of June 2011, there have been 25 million iPads sold cumulatively since its introduction in April 2010.
6. To date, 14 billion apps have been downloaded via the App Store. In April 2010, just about 1.5 years ago, the number was at 4 billion. Right around when the iPad was launched.
7. Despite lackluster buzz, the most recent iPhone 4S got 200,000 pre-orders in just 12 hours.
8. Jobs purchased animated studio ‘Pixar’ at $5M from Lucasfilms in 1986. In 2006, he sold Pixar to Disney for $7.6B and became Disney’s biggest shareholder.
9. Apple made the first mass-market color digital camera in 1994. The camera had no digital display, boasted one megapixel, took a total of eight photos, and cost $749.
10. Apple is the 2nd largest company in the world, right behind Exxon-Mobil.

And the ImTech take (please note this is my personal opinion and perception):

Steve Jobs’ Apple products have directly and indirectly influenced a huge spur in development and awareness of immersive technologies. The iPhone entered into the peak of a mobile industry monster that ran on button interfaces, and maybe sometimes, styluses. In just a few short years, they made touch-based interfaces the standard. Along with the iPod touch, multi-touch tracking pads and mouse, and the iPad; these devices fueled a continual growth in interest for touch-based computing further moving consumers away from the conventional (and aging) buttons and mouse.

The iPad and Macbook Air and the convenience of personal computing: Prior to the introduction and upgrades of these products, you were forced to choose between portable and lackluster, or powerful and inconvenient. The introduction of unobtrusive product offerings for personal computing that actually could handle a reasonable workload has been key, especially considering that the tablet and netbook market was small and slow to adopt. In addition, the iPad has played a huge role in the tablet industry BOOM.

Also, keep in mind the huge spur in momentum for the Augmented Reality industry from the iphone/iPad boom.  Prior to the iPhone, even the constant action of holding phones in the air (to seek & view visual digital information overlayed on the physical world) didn’t exist. The app store model and popularity of the iPhone also led to strong competitive development by Google’s Android OS and their (more open-source friendly) brand of products contributing to the augmented reality industry.

We can also discuss the iPhone as a technological extension of one’s self (human-android relationship) (there’s an app for that). The iPhone entered into a niche market of smart phone users at a high buy-in price Now, the prominence of smart phones (with touch-interfaces no doubt) is ubiquitous. We use our phones to guide us (GPS) and our decisions (Yelp); to schedule, document, then broadcast our lives, and to connect to others. Smart phones have become our first full-time extension of our physical forms within the digital space. (When’s the last time you put down your phone?)

And let’s not forget the influence on the development of the Android OS industry – whole industries and markets created to compete against Apple iOS. Some might enjoy the open source availability and rootability of Android’s devices, and maybe they curse Apple’s proprietary nature and marked up prices of their products. But no matter what side you’re on and what you prefer, we can at least mildly agree that the quality of Android’s operating system has been strongly influenced by the iPhone’s success… competition breeds continual innovation. From both sides.

And finally, we speak on the widespread adoption of 3D media. While Apple didn’t invent 3D technology, the wide monetary success of 3D animated films by Pixar (and a consistent growth of quality 3D productions by other studios) has given the 3D industry such a strong demand that 3D media appears to be rapidly on its way to being the standard.

I understand Apple doesn’t necessarily invent these breaking technologies, nor are they ever the first do adopt/implement. Instead, they do seem to be the ones to set the standard. So whether you admired Jobs’ vision, or thought he was pompus and abrasive, own Mac products, or prefer performance per dollar over aesthetics; I’d like to point out just the same to everyone how influential it appears Apple has been on the Immersive Technologies space as a whole.

We had the opportunity to attend SIGGRAPH 2011, Vancouver this past week and were really happy with what we saw. It takes a certain level of innovation to excite us at this stage of the game but the exhibitors this year definitely did not disappoint. The video above is a compilation of just some of the things we got to see in the Emerging Technologies section of the event.

Since it is not entirely clear what the functions of everything in the video is, I will do my best to explain each briefly in order here:
(please keep in mind that some of these names are not official)

Face-to-Avatar: A blimp that houses a projector, microphone, and camera for new age telepresence applications. It can display either a static image or a stream being sent to its on board wireless receiver.
Cyclone Display: A display that spins disks with different patterns on them. The speed of the disk, along with the speed that the projector is flickering at, determines what colors you will see. Essentially each disk is a sort of pixel.
ISCAN3D: A 3D scanner for your iPhone that works in a few minutes on just input from 5-30 pictures.
InteractiveTop: A twist on the game of tops with graphics and sounds galore. It tracks the collisions and features a magnetic controller for each top too.
Mommy Tummy: A strap on tummy that is used to simulate both the joys and stresses of pregnancy.
Recompose: Actuated Surface: A series of actuators that can be controlled using gestures as well as direct manipulation.
Vection Field: A device that can influence pedestrians to walk in a certain direction by displaying a certain dynamic pattern.
Toucheo: An immersive multi-touch workstation that can be used to easily manipulate 3D assets.
Telenoid: A telepresence robot that can transmit voice and facial movements and is neither male nor female, young nor old.
Virtual Crepe Maker: A haptic representation of fluid dynamics that has been made fun by the crepe making game.
True 3D Display: A 3D display that uses laser-plasma technology to output a virtual object with the amazing resolution of 50,000 points per second. (A part broke in transit and they only were able to operate it at half of its capability.
Thermal Interactive Media: A display that senses the temperature of its input and reacts accordingly.
PocoPoco: A new age musical interface and sequencer with 16 solenoids that are loaded with sensors.
HAPMAP: A sort of haptic navigation in which the user holds a device in their hand which simulates the feeling of sliding your hand along a railing. The “rail” is on a pivoting actuator so that it can steer the user in the right direction.

Here is another conceptual video created by Corning Incorporated in “A day made of glass.” It goes through what would be your typical day scenario waking up at your beautiful luscious estate, by your wife with model good looks, as the photovoltaic glass reveals yet another perfect day in pleasantville. Followed by various interaction with every piece of glass you encounter throughout the day being touch sensitive, electronic enabled displays. This is a novel idea and as for as long as I can remember has been a common representation of the future where all surfaces are interactive. While the concept was focused around the future of glass, I would’ve loved to see some other future elements incorporated into the video like hovering cars that drive themselves, holographic communication, or omelet ready hybrid bell peppers with infused eggs substitute. How soon do you think this glass future will be a reality, and what future elements would you like to include?

Capacitive screens has now become a commodity for touch screen devices. Screen technology is now taking the next leap and the coming years imagination is the only thing stopping us. We will soon have dual screens, malleable screens, screens built into wifi connected mirrors, desks or backside of gadgets clothed with e-ink screens, tactile feedback, color screens with great contrast in sunlight, holographics/stereoscopic screens, color e-ink touch screens, or screens actually knowing where they are in relation to other screens thanks to ultrasonic emitters and microphones.

TAT wanted to show some of these things in an “experience video”, that shows a normal day in a couple of years when all these technologies are affordable enough to be used everywhere. This video is the result of our experiment with open innovation, read more about their experiments at their website.

For more news and videos on immersive technologies visit : www.immersivetech.org

Follow us on Twitter: @immersivetechla

This video is copyrighted by The Astonishing Tribe: tat.se

Developer Florian Echtler at TISCH (Tangible Interactive Surfaces for Collaboration between Humans) has hacked Microsoft’s Kinect to create a simple proof-of-concept HD video of using a hacked Kinect camera for multitouch-like interaction. Written using libfreenect and libTISCH (http://tisch.sf.net).

Echtler accomplished the hack by hooking the open source Kinect driver that’s floating around the web to his custom multitouch software library. His hack is rough, but functional, and it’s definitely a sign that Microsoft could eventually offer the same sort of multitouch functionality for browsing pictures directly on the Xbox 360.

This was done on Ubuntu Linux using libfreenect and libTISCH.

For more news and videos on immersive technologies visit : www.immersivetech.org

Follow us on Twitter: @immersivetechla

This video is copyrighted by Tangible Interactive Surfaces for Collaboration between Humans: tisch.sourceforge.net

Since the invention of the computer, man has constantly look for different way of interfacing and inputting into a computer. The mouse was probably one of the greatest leaps forward in making computers more accessible to individuals that didn’t want to learn the tedious commands required for a non-GUI (graphical user interface) interface. Touchscreen seems to be the natural follow up after the mouse. Just point and touch what you want to do right?

Well, here’s a whole new way of doing something we are quite familiar with, except instead of touching a screen you’re touching a pool of water! The technique used here isn’t based on pressure or capacitance but rather on the refraction patterns that can be seen in water when your finger breaks the surface of the water. I can see a whole new marketing campaign already! ‘Get your hands wet with zen computing!’ All that is missing how is a tranquil waterfall and a miniature sand tray and rake!

The world’s first ever Immersive Technology Summit will be held at the Los Angeles Center Studios (LACS) on October 21st, 2010.

For more news and videos on immersive technologies visit : www.immersivetech.org

Follow us on
Twitter: @immersivetechla
Vimeo: www.vimeo.com/immersivetech/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=1839260
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Immersive-Tech/314045571248?ref=ts
This video is copyrighted by Taichi Inoue:  taichi.s372.xrea.com

Manual Deskterity is a prototype digital drafting table that supports both pen and touch input. We explore a division of labor between pen and touch that flows from natural human skill and differentiation of roles of the hands. We also explore the simultaneous use of pen and touch to support novel compound gestures.

We advocate a division of labor between pen and touch: the pen writes, touch manipulates, and the combination of pen+touch yields new tools. This articulates how our system interprets unimodal pen, unimodal touch, and multimodal pen + touch inputs, respectively. We contribute novel pen + touch gestures that leverage the strengths of both pen and touch; utilizing both modalities to complement one another also enables us to largely sidestep the weaknesses inherent in each modality as well.