Wiimote Turns TV into Touchless MS Surface

RemyBR writes "User interface project allows you to control objects on a display using gestures, working like Microsoft's Surface but without touching the screen at all. Inspired by Johnny Chung Lee's work, the system requires you to wear Minority Report-style gloves equipped with infrared emitters on your fingertips. A Wiimote on top of the display keeps track of these IR LEDs, while the software can read the motion down to two-finger pinching gestures for image zooming."

Comments

What style gloves?

[techpawn]

the system requires you to wear Minority Report-style gloves

come on! Don't toy with my emotions!!! Power glove man! System requires you to wear modified power gloves!

Re:What style gloves?

[AKAImBatman]

If you actually need a YouTube video to know what I'm talking about, you need to hand in your geek card. NOW.

Re:What style gloves?

[AKAImBatman]

No, you lose (sorry, loose) points for that. Tom Cruise stars in that movie, remember? Which means you get scored -1 Scientology Wacko Supporter. :-P

Table

[pavon]

Would it be possible to shine IR light through the edge of a plexiglass surface, and then when the user touches the surface it would cause the IR to scatter at that point creating a point source for the Wiimote to track?

Where is the software

[brent_linux]

Ok I get it. You can make multitouch interfaces. I have made multitouch interfaces myself using a couple different methods.

They aren't worth a damn though unless you have something to use them with. Where is the multitouch picture organizing software that I can display on my coffee table and let me family sort through the pictures. Where is the multitouch D&D program that will let me and my friends move our characters through a dungeon with miniatures? Where is the multitouch coloring book that I can put a bunch of kids on? Multitouch math races? Multitouch Chemical Compound manipulation?

We need software. We have ways to interact now. We need things to interact with.

Two words

[Reality Master 101]

Two words: tired arms.

Unfortunately, these sort of interfaces suffer from the same problems that doomed touch screen and light pens 20 years ago ("They can just touch the screen! How easy is that??") Users liked them at first, but holding your arm up is tiring. Try reaching out to your monitor and trace your Slashdot window for five minutes and see how long you last. It's *hard*.

There's a reason people in the Old Days wrote on flat tables, and didn't write on easels. That's also why artists who do use easels typically do "stroke and rest" (and why cartoonists use a flatter table)

A touch table is far superior for this sort of thing for that reason.