Three women, two men and eight children were buried 4,500 years ago, affectionately positioned in a tender embrace. In 2008 for the first time internationally, we have proof of the early existence of a nuclear family that can be studied with DNA analysis. A sensation!

But what really happened? Why did these people die at the same time? Did they become victims of a violent crime? Who were they and why did this tragedy occur? Under the direction of BKA-Profiler and with help from the most modern analysis methods, archeologists and anthropologists determined this case noteworthy. What seems to be turning into a criminal case from the Stone Age is becoming a key to an epoch of human history where many mysteries are unsolved. This could help shed light onto human life and social behavior of this region of Germany at that time.

TIME magazine has chosen the Eulau graves investigation as one of the ten most important scientific discoveries of 2008. Vectorform was on site with our MS Surface for the TV production in October of 2009, at the Regional Authorities for Care of Monuments and Archeology / National Museum for Prehistory in Halle, Germany.

Under the direction of Michael Gregor and Gerwin Darwin:

Prof. Dr. Harald Meller, Archeologist and Museum Manager of the National Museum for Prehistory Saxony-Anhalt in Halle; Dr. Michael Baurmann, Federal Criminal Police Office/ Criminological Research (Wiesbaden); Christian Meyer, Anthropologist (University of Mainz) and Dr. Robert Ganslmeier, Chief Excavator Eulau, in collaboration with Vectorform and with the help of our custom built multi-touch application, we were able to bring the case of Eulau to life.

The program is scheduled to broadcast in 2010.

Vectorform has had a blast at CES. Our NBC Universal apps and the managed experience has been a huge hit. The NBC reps handed out 2GB SD disc jump drives in a Surface tagged package that were coded so that as people set down their package, they either received a notice saying “Winner” and received really cool novelties like a toaster powered by USB, or another message to visit the wall of media to download content to their new jumps. People were fanatic about it and NBC ran out of jump drives at the middle of day two. Mobbed! So, today people are slowing down to take the time to interact with the Surface and discover the content, which is really the magic of it.

Now I’m taking a little break here to blog from the NBC blogger lounge, appreciate the gratuity of the NBC folks over the past few days as well as throughout our projects with them and to view the crowds’ continued interest in the Surface. People are really taking the time to engage with NBC’s content, likely spending more time with it then they may have in the past and having a better experience overall. Adding a whole new dimension to what media can do to people by adding the sense of touch to sight, audio and emotional connections. Its just the beginning of something really big in the Multi-touch realm. As we wrap up here, things seem to be a little more quite today. We are continuing to meet some fascinating people and see interesting technologies.

Me? I’m getting geared up for what lays in wait for us at the NRF…not necessarily geared up for the red-eye that I’m catching tonight. More from New York tomorrow!