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New "Power Glove" for the PC
friedmud writes "I just saw an interesting technology demo over at Essential Reality. It is of a "glove-like" device that allows you to interact with your computer. In particular the demo(which is very viewable using the CrossOver plugin) having to do with 3D Studio Max was just incredible (almost too incredible - but hey, we'll have to see) - they put together a model of a mouse in seconds by "molding" it using the "glove". It looks like the SDK is out, and the product is supposed to ship soon. News blurbs can be found at: PCWorld, Yahoo"
That demo looks totally fake. It looks like they recorded a video of someone playing Quake, Half-Life, and modeling in 3DS Max with a mouse, then superimposed that picture of someone acting out the movements. I would be very surprised if those on-screen movements were actually made with the glove in real-time. Besides, with no tactile feedback, I imagine it would be pretty hard to "grasp" objects.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
Watching the demo of it in use, I was especially impressed with the 3DSMax portion of it. Its a common saying in the industry that trying to model something on a computer is like trying to sculpt clay with boxing gloves on. This could change that old axiom. From the looks of it, this thing would be far easier to use than any of the LogiCad3D devices
Currently, most models are first carved out of clay, then scanned into a computer using a progressive laser and manipulated digitally. A product like this, that actually lets you accurately manipulate 3D space without having to break work flow and check your positioning in relation to axes, could do wonders for the modeling industry.
In my opinion, if its as easy to use as it looked in the demo, this thing will sell like crazy.
The Nintendo/Mattel PowerGlove
Sourceforge project to create Linux drivers
A glove interacting with a computer has quite a long way to go before it will be able to compete with the humble wad of clay.
The kinds of tools available to a sculptor, the tactile feedback of the medium is far, far superior to a single glove acting on air and the artist looking at a computer screen.
The glove has it's uses: it is not a replacement for a 3D capture device, however.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
it looks a little clunky, but the CyberGlove with its four levels (prices) has force AND tactile feedback. Immersion also has an SDK for use with it... the demo (RM format) has a great example of how it works
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Does anyone remember the original Power Glove for the NES? I'd guess you would.
Now, does anyone know what happened to it? Most people don't. But Mattel got sued for patent violation. Turns out they used the same technology in their $75 PowerGlove that the makers of the $10,000 DataGlove owned.
A lot of people have been wiring these things up for use with General PCs for regular use
There's a sourceforge project to write some Linux drivers, but they are in the 'planning' phase. There are some other drivers here (readme). Scroll down until you get to 'powerglove.tgz'
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
What if it were not intended to replace clay, but use a combination of clay and the gloves to bypass the scanning step? The sculptor could put on the gloves, start working with some standard lump of clay, initialize the glove tracking program, and manipulate the 3D model with the gloves as their actual hands manipulate the real clay model. When the real-world sculpture is finished, the 3D model would be done, as well.
Then all that's left is to hook up the fabricator, hit "copy", and start cranking out toys...
It looked to me like the raccoon was built up out of a bunch of primitives (deformed spheres, etc.) That's not much of a sculpting job, really, and not much more impressive than you could achieve with a pointing device like a mouse or Wacom tablet.
Where a device like this *might* be interesting is when used in conjunction with Maya's Artisan tools or Softimage|XSI's weight maps to deform and stretch a polygon mesh by pushing and pulling vertices.
And as for the idea of "most models" being created through a sculpt/digitize process, maybe that's true at the high end (Pixar, ILM, DD, PDI), but your average mom and pop animation shop is likely using the tools built into their software.
A well designed modelling enviroment like Maya or Softimage pretty much eliminates the need to check positioning in relation to axes... most modellers I know do most of their work in the perspective view anyways.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com