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'Cut and Paste' Is Out, 'Pick and Drop' Is In

Posted by michael on from the grab-twist-and-pull dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "How do you exchange a file with a colleague or a photograph with a family member? Chances are that you cut the desired element and paste it into your e-mail program to send it. Now, imagine yourself in a meeting, picking a file on your PDA with a digital pen and using the same pen to drop it on your friend's laptop screen. This is exactly what Jun Rekimoto and his team at Sony Interaction Laboratory have developed with their 'pick and drop' technique. BBC News looks at this project in Digital pen takes on mouse. Because it's based on cheap and existing components, such a system might be released in the near future, though Sony hasn't announced any plans to do it. You'll find more details and pictures in this overview."

12 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Social Gaming? by mfh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is a great step towards a more social use of computers. Instead of being bogged down with components and using hardware to move files around, it looks as though presenters will be able to quickly move through lectures or presentations without having to mess around. This seems much more seamless to me, and natural. Imagine gaming with the pick and drop scenario. I'm an amateur game designer and this is opening a whole new field of dreams for me... like maybe a better way to interract with film, in theatres, or the advent of much better interactive social gaming.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:Social Gaming? by TheLink · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How about this scenario:

      Using my wearable server, I manually (eye/hand gestures etc) or mentally (remember that mind reading thing?) send a URL to my friend (think instant messaging). The URL could point to an object on my wearable server (or some other server).

      Voila instant telepathy.

      My friend receives the URL on his/her wearable server, (IM) and proceeds to download/view the object/content. Then my friend could also "click" on a URL that changes the music a jukebox plays. Similar for setting the airconditioning temperature and lighting of a room.

      Each wearable server could run a browser like app that helps make this possible - view streaming media, easily click on stuff given limited manual input, (select items from predictable lists of lists of lists etc). It will also run a webserver and web application that makes objects accessible, and a server that streams input video/audio.

      Think super wearable PDA. No need to retype data. Look at the left top corner, press a button or make a gesture(hand/eye/mind), look at the right bottom corner and press a button/make gesture. You then select a rectangular clip out of the video you can see. The rectangular clip could be stored raw and/or automatically processed - e.g. OCR. Then you can just send the object to your colleague or friends or object database at home.

      --
  2. Tom!!! by jkabbe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This sounds like what Tom Cruise was doing in Minority Report with those fancy computer gloves.

    1. Re:Tom!!! by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 4, Interesting

      An utter failure of icon-oriented menu or index interfaces is that not only do people remember the image, but more importantly, they remember the shape, size and position of the image.

      People can find a pencil on a desk just fine, but finding a pencil in a 16x16 icon grid array of books and papers all evenly spaced randomly is nearly impossible... despite being icon oriented.

      Now oddly, it's easier to find the shape of the word "pencil" in a paragraph than it is to find an icon of a pencil in a grid of icons.

      Faster still is "ctrl-f" "pencil"

      And yet faster is to type "ls pencil" on the command line.

      Just because a UI is intuative does not mean it is user friendly... infact, it's usually the opposite.

    2. Re:Tom!!! by svallarian · · Score: 3, Interesting

      and it's even quicker to say
      "pencil"

      Now with these 3Ghz+ processors where the heck is the integrated, cheap, good voice control software?

      Steven Vallarian

      --
      I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."
  3. Transmission Vector by Apocalypse111 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I suppose that someone should play devil's advocate and point out that this will revitalize the old "dirty disk" transmission vector for virus's and other malware. Where it use to be, "Don't put that disk in your PC, its got a virus on it", now it'll be "Don't touch me with that thing, its dirty!".

    Subsequent invention of a small, slip-on firewall is pending...

    --
    There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
  4. Re:The question by Psiren · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Then it won't matter, because no-one else will use the technology and it'll just quietly fade away.

  5. A solution looking for a problem by phayes · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The typical ways of exchanging files, using e-mail, discs, or a shared file server, are impractical or clumsy in many cases.

    No, typical interfaces used to exchange information are impractical or clumsy. Well designed interfaces are not. Back before my Palm died I used to use beam-it to exchange files with other palm owners using the IR link. While the user interface was far from optimal, it was far from being impractical or clumsy.

    Setting up a "pen manager server" just so I can exchange files is impractical and clumsy.

    Best quote in the BBM article:
    Dr Russell Beale, of the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham in the UK, said it was "toys for the boys".

    --
    Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
  6. Re:Novelty? by R.Caley · · Score: 3, Interesting
    On the other hand, if they can get it to be as robust and enough mem like thumb drives, they could really take off.

    No memory, it just passes a handle and you computer gets the stuff from a server.

    I'm not sure what advantage it gives over just making the PDA, or whatever, do the job directly. The pen is just another thing to break/lose/have stolen.

    Actually, what we should have is IR on the PDA and a tilt switch inside. Then you could pour the data from yours into your friend's. Bummer when you spill your address book on the floor though.

    --
    _O_
    .|<     The named which can be named is not the true named
  7. Re:Novelty? by stinkyfingers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Another novelty? I had a PalmPilot and then a PocketPC, and the number of times I "beamed" my contact information could be counted on one hand.

  8. I've had a need for this. by Libertarian_Geek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Back in '92 in a High School computer class after some serious concentrating on coding, I looked over to a friend's PC next to me, and instinctively tried to move my mouse cursor over to his PC to show him an error. At the time, I felt silly for doing that. In hindsight, my subconscious actions might have led to a similar innovation.
    Now on a related note, I found that after hours of playing Castle Wolfenstein (back then), I had the urge to push on every brick wall I found to see if there was a hidden room behind it.

    --

    www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights

    www.fairtax.org
  9. Use Tokens to exchange any size files by e-mail by MvdB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I use Tokens to exchange any size files with my family and friends. So, I can e-mail a Token that contains a reference to some videos and pictures (the size of which easily exceeds the size of an e-mail attachment). The receiver can redeem the Token. No more fiddling with sending CDs through the mail with the latest pictures and videos of the kids. For more information or to try it out:
    http://www.creo.com/tokens