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"Holographic" Desk Allows Interaction With Virtual Objects
Zibodiz writes "The Sensors and Devices group at Microsoft Research has developed a new system called HoloDesk that allows users to pick up, move and even shoot virtual 3D objects.
It's about the size of a filing cabinet and is made up of an overhead screen that projects a 2D image through a half-silvered beam splitter into a viewing area beneath. A Kinect camera keeps tabs on a user's hand position within the 3D virtual environment, a webcam tracks the user's face to help with placement accuracy, and custom algorithms bring everything together in (something very close to) real time."
Doesn't Paramount own the trademark on HoloDeck? And would this be too close for comfort?
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I'm surprised they are using a point cloud and not a mesh for the tracking? That would explain why the physics seems a little unstable / jumpy when the ball floats around on the book.
Cool prototype -- will be real interesting to see what kind of applications get developed once this tech is cheap enough where every home has one.
Oooh, I can't wait to play "Operation" on one of these!
Sure sounds like rebirth of MS Bob. MS never lets old code go to waste, wait long enough the idea will come around again.
The graphics on the display really look like the stuff from Star Wars (original trilogy) where the chess pieces attack each and kill each other
I worked for the Electronics Visualization Laboratory, back in the late 90's. We developed a similar system called PARIS,some time around 1998.
http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=4&type=1&indi=83
I have a handful of virtual papers I need to staple and someone stole my virtual stapler. Well, I better check the virtual drawer for a virtual paper clip.
I am working on a system that lets you manipulate objects on a desktop, but contains both 3D objects and immediate and realistic tactile sensation.
The best part is the objects are completely functional. For instance, I have a pencil object right now that will write on a paper object and dull itself over time. It is realistically modeled in wood.
I've also implemented drawers which can be used to organize and store the objects for later retrieval, as well as a rudimentary file system.
I'm not entirely sure what to call it yet, but I'm thinking of going with "a desk."
Now we're talking.
It appears you are posting a reply to a story about Microsoft. Please select one or more of the following unfunny references:
o 640 K of memory
o Chair throwing
o Blue something of death
o Microsoft Bob
Do not include a punchline.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Have the Slashdot story logos gone banal all of a sudden?
What happened to The Borg Gates?
Even the story about Gates's reinvention of the toilet uses some boring stock photo.
Just imagine: virtual hand-washing dishes, virtual weed pulling, virtual pebble sorting.
The video-game possibilities are endless!
I'm going through the Organic Chemistry sequence in college right now and I find the one of the most difficult ideas to present to students (myself and my classmates) is the 3D spatial arrangement of molecules.
If the professor had access to one of these Holodesks during a lecture he could rotate enantiomers as well as perform reactions in real time which could be a huge boon for anyone having trouble with regiochemistry.
Lose the Borg logo?
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I fail to see the practical applications of this. I mean yeah, instead of relying on sensors that are orders of magnitude more sensitive or precise than the human hand, let's re-create a virtual world with a bad physics system and let people use their extremely low resolution hands to do things that they could do for real with real objects. I mean short of being a toy, what is the point?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Where's my borg?
My holographic monitor, i watched this video on, was too large to fit in my room (and i am at the stadium as you can notice). :)
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Seriously, bring back that thing.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
If this was developed with a Linux system you guys would all be harping about all the practicle applications and uses this could have in the future...
Does anybody else see hiding this from the wife a problem? Give it to some porn websites and let them work out the details, and they'll have a commercially viable product in 6 months.
21st Century Renaissance Man
Did anyone else misread that as holodeck, not desk? Way to get my hopes up summary.
Haptic technology. You wear a glove which applies pressure to your hand in the right spots, and voila! The only difference between this and real life is... well, nothing, besides the fact that you can't take the object out of the HoloDesk.
This has a tremendous amount of applications, namely (as mentioned in the video) long-distance collaboration and prototyping.
Sure the physics is buggy right now, but it's just a prototype, and it's using a Kinect for video. Something much more accurate could be used instead.
D. Gabor and Denisuk would be sad about this incorrect usage of "holography" in the summary..
I want to know when they release a holographic bed.
This kind of technology will completely change the marketplace.
If these get cheap enough that you can put one of these in your house, it would give you the ability to handle a virtual version of whatever item you wanted to buy... before you bought it! If these machines were accurate and sensitive enough (and had the computational power) you could even interact with a virtual version of say, a mobile phone. You wouldn't be able to actually "feel" anything you you were handling, but it sure beats the hell out of a jpeg.
and visualize the thunderstorm right there on the edge of my desktop, as it as it lurches towards Virginia.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
If me and my friend are fondling my holobabe does that count as a 3-some?
So, I can use this to throw virtual chairs?
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. -- Mussolini
Agreed - I wish people (and especially Hollywood) would learn just what the hell a hologram IS.
It's bad enough that some people only eat salads, but now virtual salads! I can just feel the weight melting off!
Its another variation on Pepper's Ghosts and not a Hologram. But its cute I'll give this implementation that.
In this day and age, why do they always upload this in some shitty lowres version recorded on someones Nokia phone from 1998?
1080p people!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating