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Obscura Digital Demos "Minority Report"-Like Display
Barence and other readers sent along word of a demonstration by Obscura Digital of a new technology it's dubbed a multi-touch hologram — reminiscent of the display in Minority Report. The demonstration shows a man interacting with holographic images projected before him, moving them around and resizing them. It's only sort of like the Minority Report display, which used hand movements to control elements on a screen. Earlier, Obscura had demoed another take on the Spielbergian technology, a multi-touch wall.
now please. That's one of the best displays that I've ever seen in any sci-fi movie. Even if it was just special effects, it had me drooling. That and the electric citroen DS from gattaca.
MP3 Search Engine
Somehow, doesn't seem as efficient as alt-tabbing.
Someday, when holograms are commonplace, I will drive down the street, and instead of seeing my car, you will see a giant snake breathing fire on everything around me.
I applaud every bit of research and technology advancements that bring me closer to that future.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Yeah, but can we lay it down on say, a table?
as a form of Geek exercise. Lift that window, scroll that window, spin it, spin it, expand then contract...
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
The researchers did state that their tech would need to be scaled up before it could work with straight actors.
How can pr0n be enhanced from this technology?
nothin' sounds quite like an 808
The problem with this is that your arm gets tired! The Nintendo Powerglove from the 80's had this problem. A more natural interface would occasionally let you use your hands for rapid-fire intensive input or precision adjustments, but would follow your eyes and verbal instructions.
Well first of all, it's shot from one angle, saw another movie like this where some random blogger (also the case here it seems) thinks its "holographic" when it is in fact a projector shooting on clear plastic.
Also it looks to me that he interacts with the system through sensors in each hand, clicking them when he wants to "grab" something - and they are poorly calibrated, quite a lot of the time the system clearly isn't responding the way he wants it to.
Aww come on! That was pretty funny.
~ Ron Fitzgerald
Boring.
Hasn't anyone figured out a more interesting application of this "multi-touch" input form?
The /. lameness filter could use a little tweaking.
This comment is for entertainment purposes only. Any similarity to real insight or information is purely coincidental.
So how exactly does this work? I'd hate to find out that it is just a hyped camera trick that looks awful from any other angle.
From the blog comments:
This guy is not controlling anything with his hands. It's a pre-recorded sequence and he is "hand-syncing". Look closely.
Still, I'd like to know what technology they used to create the holograms... *IF* indeed they're real.
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I'll keep my CLI, thank you very much!
Imagine the ungodly interactive porn!
stuff |
Using the Powerglove is not like using a Wii. Try making a fist and waving it back and forth and up and down in front of you with the back of your hand level. Try this for hours. Eventually, you wind up trying to rest your elbow on something. With the Wii, you usually make specific gestures, after which you are free to go back to a more restful position. It's more like holding a sword/racquet/frying pan. The Powerglove is more like using a giant-sized air-joystick. There is no chance for resting. The Wii is much more "natural."
If the interface in the article allows you to make momentary gestures, then it won't be tiring. If your hands are way out in front of you for hours, it will be a drag.
why is it that every single demo of these multi-touch technologies involve moving/rotating/resizing f-ing pictures or photographs? What am I, a private eye looking for f-ing clues? For christ's sake, show me some some practical applications, gawdammit..
If they're using the setup I think they are the guy giving the presentation can't see the holograms from his angle. He's most likely looking at a tv pointed at him, Making this cool but mostly useless.
All this is a lot like what Johnny did with the Wii-mote. He effectively turned the Wii (aka OLD technology by this point) into a tracker so he could manipulate items. He even used a screen to make images appear 3-D. In fact, his system is a lot more like Minority Report because, iirc, Cruise was touching a kind of screen, moving pictures and images across it, not hanging in mid-air.
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
You don't resize with your eyeballs, NOW. You're looking over someone's shoulder saying "okay, make it just a bit bigger. Okay just a smidge too big. Okay split the difference." Then you get frustrated and "grab the mouse" and do it yourself, which is when you'd do the hand gesture thing.
This had me confused for a while, since I haven't seen the Tom Cruise movie. I can recall no such thing from the 1949 short story by Theodore Sturgeon, or from the 1959 PKD short story.
Realistically speaking: in what areas of use, is it handy to wave your arms around to view translucent photographs, or interact with other kinds of translucent 2D images in front of you that way? Other than a novelty, can it break through? The mouse was a great invention, even though it looks very boring to have a pointer on a screen, it was something extremely useful. But standing and moving your arms around surely isn't something you can keep doing for a long time? Still cool to see though! Maybe for original demos in an interactive museum?
Indeed. I've seen holograms in tech museums, but they're only viewable from one angle. And worse, they're always BEHIND the glass with the imprinted interference patterns.
I've yet to see a hologram that can be displayed in any point in space (and could be viewed from nearly all angles) with just one or two projectors. THAT would merit a Nobel Prize.
More than that, have you noticed that the primary organizational concept used for all of these "advanced" systems is the pile?
If all I wanted to do was move things from one pile to another I'd ditch the computer and go back to the piles of paper on my desk.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
I saw a commercial with a girl using a holographic display and I realised that there is no privacy in it, unless she uses Public Key encryptions built in to her special glasses so only she can see the display unencrypted.
"I'm a dirty white tomcat, enter my world..."
This technology isn't new...
The film and video game industry have been using it forever, notice he is wearing black (in the video) and has a spotlight on him (whitening his skin). It's using the same motion capture software.
Looking at their site also shows the specialize in projection technology. Meaning there is likely a fine mesh in front of him for the projection to land upon. That doesn't seem very advanced to me.
Everyone sees gesture applications and thinks... oh thats innovative...
Gorillaz with a 'z'. Grammy Awards, 2005 I think. The way it was staged, I'm not sure where the 'foil' was, since Madonna walked in front of one animated character and behind another (or perhaps I was looking at her legs or something and was fooled). As others have stated, not holographic but still interesting. Musion's site has videos of several interesting examples.
Although that show had its problems, especially after the 1st year, they got a lot of tech right. Mobile phone video with flexible e-paper type displays, etc.
Will the public ever tire of this kind of crap? I'm willing to sit with the next guy and admire some cool-looking input/manipulation device just like I'm willing to flick though the National Enquirer for laffs, but there IS a limit.
Do they think this is impressive? Do they think it has an actual use? I suppose they do, but right here, right now: this. is. shit.
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
He can see them. They are being projected on to a semi-clear sheet of plastic. If you've ever done this with a projector, or projected on to a sheet, you know you can see it from both sides.
I've been looking for something like this - I have this collection of weird, blurry nonsensical poloraids that I've been wanting to slightly change the size of, rotate, and punch around.
for the rest of you though, this technology seems to have far greater promise for gaming purposes. not sure why they didn't tailor their demo to that sort of application.
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This actually has more literary content than the rest of this thread. Genius! Pure genius!
I need to wear black.
Hold 'fists' all the time (unless to zoom, which will be seldom)
and work in a dark room.
All to prove that I can use all my body parts to do what? Move a freaking 2D window across the screen. Inefficiency at its best I guess?
Where do I sign up? (too cool!)
You can take the crack out of the pot but it won't stop this guy from smoking it.
This is an interesting theatrical trick, but isn't real because the guy can't actually see the images in front of him that he is supposedly manipulating. If you look carefully, the guy is looking down the whole time, at the projection screen hidden out of view down the front of the stage. He can't see the images in front of him, as they are reflected off the foil and only apparent to the audience.
Guestural interfaces aren't new either, and there has been a fair amount of R&D into them in recent years (well before Minority Report). Because the guy can't see what he is manipulating in relation to his hand position, I am inclined to think this is choreographed movements. Of course he could have a monitor, but that makes it no different than the greenscreens used by weathermen.
Ok let's get this clear. Being a Scientologist doesn't make you gay, it makes you retarded.
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Minority Report sucked. The sensitivity on that wall-sized display was set to the level where it required a Shatneresque facial tick to get anything to happen at all. Cruise was doing Swan Lake just to accomplish a simple fade. Just what we all need: a 10,000 pixel wide display with a 20dpi gesture camera.
The IET are running an event on Programmable Hardware Systems that looks interesting. Anyone going? Their website is http://conferences.theiet.org/phs/
Please, sit down, calm down, and see how useless is this.
- no contact feedback (seems few things, but makes typing nearly impossible.)
- PAIN, PAAAAAIIN ! (torture, suffering, tears, suicide...)
what about longtime use ? what about using this for..let's say... 3-4 hours a day (even 1 hour !) there is no way your arms, your legs, your back can handle it. Even if you sit down the weight of your arms will hurt your back...
(no utility for any geek, any nerd, any professional any "IM-kid"... and 80% of games market
- looks cool, yeah, looks great on a movie (first saw on Final Fantasy : The movie, remember ?) but NO WAY it can manage my 10 virtual desktops Desktop, it's just impossible to use 4-5 application minimum at the same time, and I don't even want to ear talking about gnome/KDE with this, it's not made for it. It needs specific WM, unless really good ideas it will be a pain to use. Using a computer it a little bit more complicated than spinning pictures and drawing circles.
- poor image resolution from the user's point of view, as far as I know holograms can't reach enough resolution, too blur to use it for real.
Verdict : Useful for "powerpoint" presentations, public conferences and...that's all. Stop saying it's all you've ever wanted for your desktop, it's just ridiculous, it's not even the purpose !
Segmentation Fault in "Life, Universe and Everything" at line 42. Don't Panic.