Brown University demonstrates Drawing on Air system

It's been a tick since we've heard any news on the 3D drawing front, but a number of computer scientists from Brown University are putting the art back in the proverbial foreground with its Drawing on Air installation. Put simply, users can slip on a virtual reality mask, grab a stylus and tracking device, and go to town. The system uses "drawing guidelines, force feedback, and two-handed interaction" to assist artists in drawing more precisely, and once movements are made, the patterns are transferred to a computer for use in 3D modeling and design programs. Unfortunately, such a system can't currently be priced at points which John and / or Jane Doe would be happy with, but the researchers did state that commercialization wasn't "too far away" and that prices should decrease from "thousands of dollars to hundreds of dollars in the next few years."

[mblum3 @ Nov 8th 2007 9:19PM]

cool.

[Amy @ Nov 8th 2007 9:22PM]

That looks like so much fun! I can't wait until they come out with the commercial version...although I have a feeling it'll be somewhere in the range of practically improbable that most of us will ever be able to afford such a cool toy!

[ark_v2 @ Nov 8th 2007 10:07PM]

I watched something like this last year on the discovery channel

[Jon Miller @ Nov 8th 2007 10:59PM]

I played around with something like this at University of Kentucky last summer. Its pretty fun to mess with in person.

[rich @ Nov 8th 2007 11:27PM]

Thats cool but this is still more practical in the short term:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVFsxev-2sk

[Prasand J. @ Nov 8th 2007 11:31PM]

I have two sets of two words for you.

tired arms

lazy people

[Prasand J. @ Nov 8th 2007 11:33PM]

Though I must say ... I'm kinda liking the idea of 3D designers being able to step into a virtual world and draw shit around them as they are looking at it.


*puts on his bob ross voice*

and we have a fuzzy little tree over here ... let's use some of that color to highlight the clouds up here.

[Bob @ Nov 9th 2007 1:01AM]

See: Virtual holodeck

I would love to do stuff like that, but better yet, if it had a library of dynamic models and stuff, so like you could type something like "Generate table: Four legs at corners, square, wood, cherry." And it generates that, and then you could modify it, like "make it twice as long, style: french colonial, shorter, add a coffee stain to location X,Y on the top."

THEN, it would own. Cause it would be easy to work with.

[peternj @ Nov 9th 2007 9:22AM]

Way cool and makes 3d work less of a chore, so it seems. I'll be first in line to buy a copy.

[gergogyerek @ Nov 10th 2007 3:22PM]

nice article. we have a very talented young guy here in Hungary called Daniel Ratai, who also made the same. just a few years before ;-) he won Intel's ISEF award in the same topic.
http://www.3dforall.hu/files/SCAN0100_0.JPG

cheers
Gergo

[jase @ Nov 14th 2007 5:12AM]

go alma mater! ever true to Brown