Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Oblong's g-speak Brings "Minority Report" Interface To Life

Posted by timothy on from the staged-mock-up-or-real-time-control? dept.

tracheopterix writes "Oblong Industries, a startup based in LA has unveiled g-speak, an operational version of the notable interface from Minority Report. One of Oblong's founders served as science and technology adviser for the film; the interface was an extension of his doctoral work at the MIT Media Lab. Oblong calls g-speak a 'spatial operating environment' and adds that 'the SOE's combination of gestural i/o, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels brings the first major step in computer interface since 1984.'" The video shown on Oblong's front page is an impressive demo.

5 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. gorilla arm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Gorilla arm.

    That is all I've got to say.

    Check the jargon file if you don't understand this.

    1. Re:gorilla arm by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well said... I thought this comic illustrated it well, also.

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  2. Nice by bb84 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but until it shows me the future I won't be *too* impressed.

  3. Not impressive at all by avalys · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, I call that an extremely unimpressive demo. It is a lot of technology with little purpose. In that entire video, what are they doing? Just spinning a bunch of pictures around.

    Without a compelling application that requires that interface, it's a just a big, expensive toy.

    --
    This space intentionally left blank.
  4. Call me a luddite but I'll stick with 2D interface by syousef · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I really don't want an interface where I have to gesticulate at a computer, while repeating words so the speech recognition engine picks them up correctly and moving cursors around with my eyeballs. Hell I don't even want 3D desktops and transparent windows - take all the damn effects away, and leave me with the folder metaphor, current UI for editing text and pictures, and a command line. These interfaces don't give me any new capabilities, and anything that requires more effort and doesn't empower the user is a waste of time. They aren't revolutionary - they're not even good sci-fi. They don't belong to the future, because the future will be built on interfaces that are MORE not less convenient and do actually give new capabilities. Good sci fi are things like the star trek communicator (not so different to today's mobile phone, or a walkie talkie of old, and were used to enable the characters).

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer