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3D Windowing System Developed Using Wayland, Oculus Rift

Posted by timothy on from the mind-the-vertigo dept.

An anonymous reader writes Developed as part of a university master thesis is this "truly 3D" windowing system environment. The 3D desktop was developed as a Qt Wayland compositor and output to an Oculus Rift display and then controlled using a high-precision Razer mouse. Overall, it's interesting research for bringing 2D windows into a 3D workspace using Wayland and the Oculus Rift. The code is hosted as the Motorcar Compositor. A video demonstration is on YouTube.

15 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. Mechanism: check. Now policy by tepples · · Score: 2

    Now that we have the mechanism, the next step is policy. I'd suggest rules like these: windows aren't spawned too close to another window, menus and window-modal dialogs float at x distance above the parent window, the cursor leaves a faint glow on windows, windows and the cursor leave a shadow x pixels thick on a desktop plane, a window can't be "rolled" (positioned such that the local X axis isn't parallel to the ground plane) more than momentarily, etc.

  2. What's old is new again by Dynedain · · Score: 4, Informative

    Everything cycles around.

    This tech existed 10-15 years ago. There were "popular" options for IRIX, and common in CAVE setups.

    I attended SIGGRAPH in 2000 or so on an exhibitor pass for a company that was producing a 3D window manager to do exactly this.

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
    1. Re:What's old is new again by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But in theory each time it cycles its less expensive, more advanced, and more available.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    2. Re:What's old is new again by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Funny

      What's this? A lack of cynicism in a post?

      Crucify him! Crucify him!

    3. Re:What's old is new again by nurb432 · · Score: 2

      It happens. Not often these days it seems, but it happens.

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  3. Turn your head to switch documents by tepples · · Score: 2

    the best way to use a word processor or a spreadsheet is still the good old flat desktop with no bells and whistles

    Unless you want to quickly view more documents than your desk has monitors. This could let you have 180 degrees of documents surrounding you. A securities day trader would climax over this.

    1. Re:Turn your head to switch documents by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      Does the warranty on a Bloomberg terminal cover...'fluid damage'?

    2. Re:Turn your head to switch documents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "180 degrees of low-rez, headache-inducing documents might just make that hypothetical trader of yours shoot himself in the face"

      So, what you're saying is that this should be implemented immediately then?

    3. Re:Turn your head to switch documents by sexconker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      the best way to use a word processor or a spreadsheet is still the good old flat desktop with no bells and whistles

      Unless you want to quickly view more documents than your desk has monitors. This could let you have 180 degrees of documents surrounding you. A securities day trader would climax over this.

      CTRL+TAB is faster than turning and focusing on a different monitor.
      Next challenger, please.

  4. Apple patent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think Apple was granted a patent on something similar to this recently (apple wins patents on 3d technology in desktop user interfaces).

    http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-wins-patents-on-3d-technology-in-desktop-user-interfaces/

    1. Re:Apple patent by armanox · · Score: 2

      And I think SGI might have prior art (I'd have to read Apple's patent to be sure).

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
  5. nauseating by kharchenko · · Score: 2

    I was looking forward to using rift at work, but this looks like a guy is desperately trying to type in a "deploy parachute" command into the terminal while tumbling through the air at horrible speeds.

  6. No, God damn it! by Overzeetop · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's a reason I don't have 13 desks in my office, and a reason I have a three-wide monitor configuration. I want to see everything at once, not have to sift or "wander" through some 3D space to find what I'm looking for.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  7. But does it help the user understand faster? by tepples · · Score: 2

    Faster is not always better for human-computer interfaces if faster misses cues that the user uses to relate one piece of information to another. Ctrl+Tab, despite being technically faster, fails to take advantage of the brain's hardwired spatial relationship processing. It also fails to fill the peripheral vision.

  8. Re:Needs a lot of work. by Tumalu · · Score: 2

    Most of the jittering in the video is due to the head movements of the user and is not actually noticable to the person wearing the goggles. In fact, if the jittering weren't present it would probably be a very uncomfortable experience for most people.

    It's kind of like when you're looking at a physical monitor: As your head moves around slightly, the position of the monitor's projection onto your retina would also jitter, but it doesn't feel like the monitor is moving because your brain subconciously compensates for these movements based on data from your vestibular system. At the same time, if you had a camera strapped to your forehead, the position of your monitor would look jittery to someone observing the video stream unless the camera or the playback device was compensating for it.

    Watching this video on YouTube is the equivilint of watching someone work at a computer from the perspective of a camera strapped to their forehead.