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A No-Touching 3D Computer Interface

Posted by timothy on from the in-development dept.

Justin Schunick points out a video demonstration of a 3D input system which senses the user's hand position, but without requiring the user to touch a controller or wear a trackable position indicator. From the provided description: "Utilizing the theory of electrostatics, we have designed a low-cost human-computer interface device that has the ability to track the position of a user's hand in three dimensions. Physical contact is not required and the user does not need to hold a controller or attach markers to their body. To control the device, the user simply waves their hand above it in the air."

13 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. I'm so sorry... by pHus10n · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...the user simply waves their hand above it in the air..." These are not the droids you're looking for.

    1. Re:I'm so sorry... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Is Access better?"

      "No...no...no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."

    2. Re:I'm so sorry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      They're shooting holes in my spreadsheet!

      "I've lost $R$2!!!"

    3. Re:I'm so sorry... by JCSoRocks · · Score: 3, Funny

      A no-touching 3D... interface

      Yeah, it seems like every girl I know has one of those.

      --
      You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
  2. Re:Look... by dem0n1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Good, I didn't want all those damn dirty, germ ridden, greasy fingerprints all over my nice shiny monitor.

    --
    Why save your soul when you can sell it for a profit?
  3. If my experience with a Theremin means anything... by nani+popoki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... then maybe a no-touch interface is not going to work well for me. I found the Theremin to be almost impossible to play because there was no way to get my hand in exactly the same x-y-z coordinate and with the same roll-yaw-pitch attitude (all of which affected the frequency of the oscillator). YMMV, of course.

  4. 5ft x 5ft x 5ft mouse pad? by eatvegetables · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Honey, look at this cool 5ft x 5ft x 5ft mouse pad that I just bought for our laptop!

    Interesting from a tech, nerd perspective I suppose. However, a web cam and a computer vision gesture control app can produce the same effect much more efficiently.

  5. Touch interface fitness required by worip · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your arms are going to get tired very quickly using this interface... Maybe we should rather work on perfecting those mind control interfaces.

    --
    A picture is worth exactly 1024 words.
    1. Re:Touch interface fitness required by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Your arms are going to get tired very quickly using this interface...

      Of course not, now you don't have to hold that heavy 5 gram light pen. No more gorilla arm syndrome !
      This guy is a genius !

      Um, wait.

      Do the people who keep on re-inventing those interfaces actually ever ponder why each previous instance failed ?

      --

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      Made from the freshest electrons.
  6. infuriatingly still by camperdave · · Score: 4, Funny

    For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.

    From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

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    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  7. Re:If my experience with a Theremin means anything by foniksonik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just needed to turn down the sensitivity a little... like people who put their mouse on super slow tracking vs. those who prefer a quick twitch approach. Personally I'd like a trackpad replacement with this interface, I don't want to have to move my whole arm around. Make it plenty sensitive or rather make the sensor's grid scaled appropriately for the size of the input.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  8. Carpal tunnel or muscle strain by fprintf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't know about everyone else, but holding my hands anywhere in free space takes quite a bit of energy unless they are hanging at my sides. The reason the keyboard and mouse or other touch surfaces work well is because they allow a person to rest their limbs in an unnatural position.

    So I am not sure about anything that doesn't allow a person to rest... it'd be like using a whiteboard all day long, and that is quite tiring!

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  9. No touching by Verdatum · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who else read this headline and immediately thought of Arrested Development?
    "No touching!"