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AquaTop Immersive Display System: Get Your Hands Wet to Sink Some Files

Posted by timothy on from the not-for-use-below-freezing dept.

mikejuk writes with an intriguing description of AquaTop, a (very) interactive display system developed at Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications Koike Laboratory, which uses a Kinect sensor, a projector, and a tub of cloudy water. Images are projected into the water, and as a user, "[Y]ou can move them around, resize them using the usual two-finger pinch, but you can also pick them up in cupped hands and transfer them somewhere else. The gesture I really liked was 'sink to delete' — yes, that's often how I feel about a file. Add some waterproof loudspeakers under the surface and allow the computer to run them at low frequency. The result is that you can now make the surface 'boil' in response to the sound. You can make fountains of water appear and project the right colors onto it to make it look like an explosion. In the demo game you throw energy bolts at squid that blow up if you hit them. You have to see the video to understand how putting your hands in cold water might be so much fun."

52 comments

  1. Metaphors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This isn't really useful right now, but these kinds of technologies lead to a possible future where we aren't that much different than we are now and we interact with our virtual world a bit more naturally. Contrast that to a future where we adapt ourselves to more easily access the information in our virtual world.

    1. Re:Metaphors by maliqua · · Score: 2

      i agree, it seems almost silly right now, but at the same time it is incredibly clever in a way. It makes me happy to see this kind of innovation even though it may not immediately fill a role in my home its encouraging to see people thinking so differently from what we see every day in the tech industry

    2. Re:Metaphors by crutchy · · Score: 0

      "imagine a computer that fits inside a single room and holds millions of pieces of information"

    3. Re:Metaphors by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 1

      Be a fun toy for younger kids.

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
    4. Re:Metaphors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And for stoners.

    5. Re:Metaphors by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 2

      I don't know. Many is the time I have been relaxing in the tub (well, shower, but the idea is the same) when I wished I could access the Internet for some random piece of information. I wish I could just say "computer, what were the lyrics to 'Velcro Fly'?" or "what was the Seventh Amendment?" and I'd see that information in some sort of display (I imagined a free-floating hologram against the shower mist). I could see a device like this very useful for bathing.

      I'm not sold on using it for anything productive or even for games, though. It looked incredibly unwieldy and inaccurate in use.

      And while I'm sure the Japanese are quite in favor of it, bathing in all that murk seems... dubious to me. I shower to get clean; getting out of the water with all that residue clinging to me?

  2. You know someone is thinking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    this would be great for pr0n.

    1. Re:You know someone is thinking... by crutchy · · Score: 0

      just don't drink the cloudy water

    2. Re: You know someone is thinking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too late. The dog already lapped it up.

  3. Cylon Basestar by Bradmont · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Sounds like the UI on the Cylon ships in the new BSG series

    1. Re:Cylon Basestar by sjames · · Score: 1

      That was my first thought.

    2. Re:Cylon Basestar by sunspot42 · · Score: 1

      Same here. Life imitates art...

  4. Well, Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    This looks brilliantly innovative and completely useless.

    1. Re:Well, Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      Agreed.

      Just because some nutjobs went "I have found a spot where I am without computer for a few minutes. I must fill this void!" - does not mean it is a good idea.

  5. Vibrating In-Bath Feedback by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

    Vibrating In-Bath Feedback is going to be popular with consenting adults I think.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Vibrating In-Bath Feedback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's already good at finding the tips of things protruding from the water...

    2. Re:Vibrating In-Bath Feedback by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vibrating In-Bath Feedback is going to be popular with consenting adults I think.

      And this will drive the development of high efficiency self cleaning bath tubs, hot tubs, etc...

    3. Re:Vibrating In-Bath Feedback by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Get Your Hands Wet to Sink Some Files

      Interactive fisting videos? :p

  6. You sunk my dataship by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    You sunk my dataship

  7. What a relief this should be by black6host · · Score: 1

    After all the hot water I get into maybe I can relax for a bit :)

  8. Search and Rescue by Uncle+Mark+(AUS) · · Score: 1

    I'm wondering if this technology could be up-scaled to be useful for detecting persons lost at sea during the night? Although the cloudy texture isn't quite there...it is salt water...

    1. Re:Search and Rescue by semi-extrinsic · · Score: 2

      And how exactly do you envision that being useful? To paraphrase Douglas Adams, the ocean is big. Really big. Really really really big. Etc.

      --
      for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
    2. Re:Search and Rescue by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 2

      I assume he wants to gather balls of light with his fingers and fire them at people lost in the ocean.

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
    3. Re:Search and Rescue by psergiu · · Score: 1

      And when the balls of light hit those people, the water around them will begin to fizzle and light up with a strong red glow - making-it easier for the search & rescue vessels to locate them. :-)

      --
      1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
    4. Re:Search and Rescue by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering if this technology could be up-scaled to be useful for detecting persons lost at sea during the night

      That shouldn't be too hard to achieve:

      Step 1: Launch the MegaKinect into L5 orbit so that it may look down upon us all. We may need to harvest Mercury for materials and energy.
      Step 2: line the shorelines with LEDs.
      Step 3: line the ocean bottom with waterproofed loudspeakers.
      Step 4: dump additives into the ocean water so it becomes appropriately murky (I believe we've already started on this one)

      Result: never worry about being lost at see again, or if you do get lost, rest assured that you'll be able to play games in the waves until you drown.

  9. Augmented Reality Sandbox by kramulous · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Still prefer Augmented Reality Sandbox.

    Example on the tubes

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    .
  10. Major backer - Porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The adult entertainement industry needs to back this project ASAP.

  11. For short-term use only. by skids · · Score: 1

    You have to see the video to understand how putting your hands in cold water might be so much fun

    Does it come with a catheter?

    --
    Someone had to do it.
  12. Finer Granularity in the Haptic Feedback by Khyber · · Score: 1

    They should use tinier Long-Throw subwoofers so they can have the explosions be more lined up with the objects being destroyed, also a finer RGB LED array so that the explosions are more colorful.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  13. And in case of virus / malfunction / Win8? by bunkymag · · Score: 1

    Just flush!

    Sounds pretty therapeutic to me..

  14. Monkeys by XNormal · · Score: 1

    I believe this is why monkeys are mentioned in the video as possible users of this interface:

    http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=japan+monkey+hot+springs

    --
    Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
  15. Three comments by jklovanc · · Score: 1

    Slow.
    Inaccurate
    Messy

  16. Wow by Brett+Buck · · Score: 2

    I think I may be getting too old, but the quote from TFS seems like a foreign language to me. If it can't be done on a VT100 it shouldn't be done at all.

            And, you rotten teenagers stay off my lawn!

    1. Re:Wow by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

      I think I may be getting too old, but the quote from TFS seems like a foreign language to me. If it can't be done on a VT100 it shouldn't be done at all.

      Yep. I'm not buying into it either, there's no market for this. They said this would be useful for applications in Bath Houses. They said bath houses and hot-springs are a part of Japanese culture, but that's just a myth! Free-standing decaffeinated water does not exist. Coffee or Tea or Colas? Yes, of course... Bottled water? Perhaps, yes jugs even, but, "Baths?!" What fool would spill liquid on anything to that degree? Never in all my years in this basement have I heard such blatant rubbish.

      It's like those fools who think global warming is caused by the sun -- As if Daylight Exists!?

  17. Waterproof laptop? by Zibodiz · · Score: 1

    Their choice of location for the laptop looks like they're just using this as a way to 'accidentally' need a new one.

  18. Another case of UI design by movie characters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As in: People who never actually used a computer to do actual work, and have no fucking clue about what a good UI is whatsoever.
    They only want it to be the movie edition of "futuristic"... which is of course something those types *themselves* designed for pure flashiness and "cool look" based on someone's outside perception of what it means to "use a computer". (A foreign device to them.)

    They *literally* have no idea what they're doing.

    1. Re:Another case of UI design by movie characters by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Yes, heaven forbid somebody invent a computer interface because it's interesting to investigate, and not because it's good for doing Microsoft Office.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    2. Re:Another case of UI design by movie characters by ledow · · Score: 2

      Did you honestly just say the equivalent of:

      "Yes, heaven forbid somebody invent a driver interface because it's interesting to drive with, and not because it's good for keeping the car on the road."?

      Exploring alternate interfaces is one thing. Claiming they are practical is quite another. An impractical interface is, pretty much by definition, worthless as an interface.

      Sure, in terms of experimenting and looking at the problem from different angles, it's "interesting". But you always have to consider the practical use. Things without practical use are, basically, art projects. "Interesting to investigate" but utterly useless at actually getting anything done.

      One can inspire the other, sure, but an interface like this is nothing more than a gimmick. Now, Kinect, Wii controllers, even those musical artists that "play" light or vegetables - they are interesting to investigate AND practical (for certain definitions of practical - the vegetable thing, for example, is nothing more than what we already do with touchscreens, measuring capacitance of objects to detect changes when they are touched). Maybe their early experiments weren't practical - but here's the clincher - YOU DID NOT HEAR ABOUT THEM. For good reason. And they certainly didn't make frontpage.

      There's investigating alternatives, thinking outside the box, and going back to first principles and trying again. But this is just a very expensive and extremely impractical way to do things we already do much more efficiently with - critically - no hope of ever improving the contribution that this would make to those tasks.

    3. Re:Another case of UI design by movie characters by lgw · · Score: 1

      Invent 100 cool new impractical interfaces, and one of them will transform real UIs forever. Each one is pretty silly, but such silliness is the only source of non-incremental change. And incremental change gets eventually gets stuck in a local maximum, so you need the other sort from time to time.

      I just wish someone had realized the "ribbon" was one of those silly 99 ideas.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    4. Re:Another case of UI design by movie characters by neminem · · Score: 1

      Did they *say* it was practical? It doesn't sound practical, but it does sound interesting. "Interesting" UIs aren't generally good for day to day office tasks, but in addition to being springboards for other new ideas, they can also lead to more direct innovations in entertainment. For instance: I certainly wouldn't want a file manager based on DDR, but I do enjoy playing DDR, and I couldn't play it without a dance mat. That's a pretty unique interface.

  19. Give them a break by ubersoldat2k7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It might be rubbish or plain stupid, but it's a pretty cool use of different technologies which might give birth to other cool stuff.

    If B.Franklin discovery was published in /. he would get comments like: "oh, a glow in the dark kite string, what's the use for that? jewelry?", "Attach it to your penis and have (your last) sexual experience thanks to Tor", "Who the hell needs electricity when we have candles... get off my lawn", "OMG!!!!111! Hittler".

    Pathetic.

    1. Re:Give them a break by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "OMG!!!!111! Hittler".

      Pathetic.

      TIL B. Franklin hung out with Timelords.

    2. Re:Give them a break by jklovanc · · Score: 1

      The difference between this and electricity is that there are hundreds of different uses for electricity. This tub is just a different implementation of already existing technology and has only one use. By the way, Franklin did not discover electricity; he was merely one of many.

  20. ...don't you? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    > AquaTop Immersive Display

    I hate that show. I wanna punch that french fry guy in the face.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  21. Re:Autorefresh ... !@##$ by peragrin · · Score: 2

    Yea I know OT.

    switch to the old style classical interface. it is only the over feature stuffed web 2.0 version that is a pain to use.

    if I login slashdot to me looks like it did 5 years ago. I know instantly when I haven't logged in as it take on the crappy web 2.0 interface that always hangs no matter what browser your using.

    --
    i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
  22. Re:Autorefresh ... !@##$ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    crappy web 2.0 interface that always hangs no matter what browser your using.

    Works fine and is very speedy for me on recent versions of Firefox on WinXP and Ubuntu (on crappy old slow PCs as well).

  23. Ummm. Can I use beer as the media? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or is that being redundant?

  24. Slashdotted.. by Kadagan+AU · · Score: 1

    I can't get to the original story, but for anyone looking for the videos, click here

    --
    This space for rent, inquire within.
  25. Not sure about multiplayer by Jyms · · Score: 1

    This is pretty cool, but can you imagine how dirty the water will get. The bath example is probably the most practical one.