Dr Dave

One of my colleagues came up with the name 'NUIverse', and since a major motivation behind creating this app was the opportunity to explore the use of Natural User Interface (NUI), and the name is a nice play on the spelling of 'Universe' the name has stuck.

While there are still a heap of tweaks and new features on my TODO list, I though it was a good time to share a short video captured from the app.

Video 1. NUIverse on Microsoft Surface 2.0.

Note that rather than using an overhead camera, I used FRAPS to capture video. Touch-points are highlighed as translucent circular markers.

Credits:

Data provided by NASA
Music by iStockphoto®, ©AudioQuattro, Sky
Battlestar Galactica models (based on new TV series) by Coxxon

Update: I thought I'd also include a link to the other video mentioned in the comments, which films the app being used rather than capturing the screen.

This video has now moved, so I've udated the link below.

Video 2. NUIverse on Microsoft Surface 2.0.

Comments

Hi,
Amazing video, loved the Battlestar ship.
We have a 65" touch screen on loan which the children are currently, exploring and playing with. What are the chances of borrowing a demo version of this software to try?
Thanks

Hi,
Really outstanding Demo, and excellent write-up!
Bookmarked!
CPU/GPU-specs & Rendering-time?

Thanks Richard, I'll get a demo build up just as soon as I can.

Hi Seb, this was all captured in real-time, running at 60+frames/sec on a Microsoft Surface 2.0 device. AMD HD6750M GPU, Athlon X2 Dual-Core 245e (2.9GHz) CPU, see http://www.samsunglfd.com/product/feature.do?modelCd=SUR40.

Totally awesome work! It looks real good. I also had an idea of a solar space simulator (but more visualizing gravity and playing around with it), but never had time to realise it.

Amazing. I'd love to get a copy to put on our Surface unit!

Is this done with XNA or WPF, the smoothness and framerate suggests XNA? We have some perf issues with WPF projects on Surface and wonder if you can really get it this smooth with WPF.

This project uses XNA. It is possible to get smooth framerates using WPF, but in both frameworks this just depends on how much work the CPU and GPU are asked to do. Some good material on optimizing WPF performance on MSDN.

Hi. Very interesting soft.

Only you have in Demo video wrong Earth's rotation and shadow moving. I think it's important for official advertising.

Best regards.
Andrey from Moscow Planetarium.

Hi Audrey,

Thanks for letting me know - you're absolutely right, and down to an unforunate error it's in the video :(
It's rotating the right way now :)

Best regards,
Dave

Hi,

I was wondering if you currently have a demo build ready?

Best regards,
Franklyn G

Any chance we will see this emerging for Windows8 at some point?
The new touch controls in W8 would be great for apps like this. Maybe a 'lite' version to accompany the big Surface 'gun'?
But awesome work, watched it again right after the first time. Love it. :-D

Amazing video, amazing interfaces and amazing app. Great work, congratulations are definitely in order :) You've generated a lot of buzz with your app! If there's a chance of getting a demo copy of the app to download (or even purchase), definitely let us all know! Very cool app indeed!

PS: (The demo would be for us to try out on our SUR40 :)

hi dave,
amazing stuff! is there a way to contact you via email? (not to spam! i'm a microsoft vendor in the u.s. and have a question for you). thanks!

Interesting app, thanks for sharing!

Found via the 'surface' channel on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzoXPav7uzs) where you have 108k views (versus the 6k views on the above video).

Hi, awesome app there, I can see the huge potential for education. On that note, what are the chances of having it demonstrated to a school? I'm sure it would boost interest in science (at least computer technology or astrophysics !), which is much needed over here...
Thanks

I think this app is incredible and cant help but see it as the best possible relic we could leave behind.. the 'time' alteration feature is beautiful, imagine having human history and map information changing as you went back. A true archive of man and potential educational tool of the future. I really really want to play on it now.

Ok,is for the eyes is FANTASTIC,but what about his real utility?Could be usefull for an amatorial Astronomer?can i see the bodies's positions in the Sky from the ground?Can i add other objects or HiRes texture like inCELESTIA!?Sorry but is only a decoy for showing the greatness of GPU and CPU,hasn't practical utility. Maybe put in a museum,for children could have a great divulgative utility,but exist already planetariums with multy-touch control or KINECT control...I don't see innovation here...RESPECT FOR WORK but is only cool for eyes and hands...
With Celestia i did the same things for 6 years with 15GB of material more and an 3D astronomical reality in all Galaxy...
You could take Celestia,put it on,change the control interface for multy-touch and you had just finished, add the sky's view from selected body and you would have a better product than Celestia,Distant Sun,Stellarium all togheter...

I am also interested in a demo for my Surface 2.0

This is fantastic. I just got a Surface 2.0 and was a bit disappointed by the response of the apps in WPF. XNA apps were a bit better. I am note sure if the apps written in WPF that came with the Surface SDK are optimized for best performance. Any chance I can get a version of this to demo?

+1 for releasing a demo, we would also like to try this on our SUR40.
Especially because this video looks so incredibly performant, while anything we tried so far, like the standard Bing Search app, is incredibly sluggish. Seems we're not the only ones with that experience.

Awesome app!
The best I've seen on surface! But... seen in a video, not in the real surface.
Are you doing it just for fun or for a client? I'd so like to have a release of your app. Of course if you are allowed to share it.

This is an amazing work. I am curious about your software. From the video, I cannot see anything that specifically limits this application to the surface hardware. I build affordable multi-touch surfaces for education. Our hardware is Surface 2.0 compliant for touch events. I would be very interested in seeing if this amazing utility you've created runs on our hardware!

Thanks everyone for your support :)

I've had a lot of fun putting this project together, however as it's something I'm doing in my own time, it only moves forward very slowly as I've a busy day-job.

I'm still trying to work through options for distributing the project.

This is really impressive. I think this app might do a lot to spur interest in the Surface technology. I purchased a few surface 2.0's for development and possible integration into our product but we are not very happy with the performance we have seen so far. I would love to try this out and if it responds the way the video shows I think we can get a lot more interest in this as a prodcut. Hopefully you can release sometime soon before my window of opportunity closes. Great Work!

David,
Good Morning. I would like to echo everyones comments about what an impressive application this is for the Surface 2.0. Excellent work. I would also like to jump on the bandwagon about if and when you would be able to release this application, either for free or for $$. I lead an IT Innovation lab for Biogen Idec, and I just purchased 2 of the V2.0 units to develop use cases for manufacturing, R&D labs, and lobby kiosks. I am looking for applications to run on the units that show off its capabilities to the various business units, and your app is an excellent way to do that. Please let me know if and when you release this app for download or purchase.

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