Obscura Digital projects multi-touch "hologram," blows all sorts of minds

The creative cats and kittens at Obscura Digital have put together a stunning piece of performance art / data manipulation demo which combines their proprietary multi-touch software with Musion's Eyeliner 3D holographic projection system. Like that BMW installation we saw recently, this is one of those odd combinations of technology and art which is best seen in action rather than described -- so check out the video after the break and see the work in all its mind-bending glory.

[Carl Vitullo @ Aug 5th 2008 12:27AM]

HOLY CRAP THAT'S AWESOME

how do they make the hologram?

[EdZ @ Aug 5th 2008 7:17AM]

Essentially, they're projecting onto a sheet of specially treated glass sitting in front of the user. The 'multi touch' is probably a 2D grid of laser beams, which are broken when he pushes his hands forward beyond a certain point.

[Blackstar @ Aug 5th 2008 7:32AM]

Obviously they are on a holodeck.

[Jack C @ Aug 5th 2008 10:56AM]

Check out Total Immersion's developments (you can start here: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=526&doc_id=160536&f_src=flffour ) ... they have some truly amazing stuff. I think they call it 'augmented reality' and it's great.

[chris @ Aug 5th 2008 3:25PM]

i definitely agree this is a great indication of the future of computing.

i do find it humorous that whenever companies demonstrate these multi touch surfaces they act like we have nothing better to do but sit around and move around our photo libraries, making the pictures bigger and smaller...of course i realize that's just for demonstration purposes, but still.

[adam @ Aug 5th 2008 12:29AM]

JEDI!!!!

[Ari @ Aug 5th 2008 12:31AM]

I kind of hoped for more, yawn...

[Erik @ Aug 5th 2008 12:32AM]

OMFGWTFBBQ!

Total iPhone clone...

[/sarcasm]

[gad get @ Aug 5th 2008 12:32AM]

Doesn't look very responsive.

[psychofire1 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:54AM]

looks more responsive then my current multi touch holographic display.

[Doug @ Aug 5th 2008 4:01AM]

Well, seems to be a pretty new thing they are doing.. Its about as responsive as your webcam beach ball slapping game was about 5 years ago.. So that's pretty impressive and we know.. It only gets better.. Right Nvidia??

[Carl Vitullo @ Aug 5th 2008 12:33AM]

NOT

[Skor @ Aug 5th 2008 12:34AM]

It's even better if you just imagine the hologram isn't there and you're just watching him flail around.

[Ricardo @ Aug 5th 2008 6:49PM]

Lol, I did watch the video again after reading the video, and it does look funny.

[VampireHunter Z @ Aug 5th 2008 12:47AM]

What are the images projected onto?? And can the images be seen from any angle. How does this thing work. /sigh my curiousity needs to be satiated.

[Josh @ Aug 5th 2008 11:35AM]

I think it is probably some kind of semi opaqued or specially coated glass like the good sir said up a couple comments. Wish it was just air :(

[Hamidxa @ Aug 5th 2008 12:59AM]

Incredible.

Now the question remains, how long before I can actually buy one?

[Ian @ Aug 5th 2008 1:00AM]

you fail again..

[chonginese @ Aug 5th 2008 1:01AM]

why's he so fisty?

[Ian @ Aug 5th 2008 1:06AM]

he has to be holding something thats talking to a computer.. hey who knows maybe its a Wii controller. but then again probably not

[Stevo @ Aug 5th 2008 1:30AM]

Yeah, he has to be holding something otherwise he wouldn't be able (anyway i can think of) to move without the pictures following him, they would just go back and forth. He must press a button, sorta like clicking and dragging...

[Night565 @ Aug 6th 2008 10:18AM]

Likely he's 'fisty' because there's a camera that looks for big pinkish-white blobs to act as 'cursors'. If you notice, he was wearing all black and standing in front of a black background. It's similar to how the wiimote looks for IR light, except instead of an invisible spectrum, the camera on the other side of the glass just looks for bright reflective light (i.e. the light bouncing to the camera off of his fists).

[Shunnabunich @ Aug 5th 2008 12:06PM]

It might be in order to make it simpler for the computer to track...two fists (or blobs of light) versus ten fingers?

[RikF @ Aug 5th 2008 1:26AM]

And you are my new 'pathetic'.

[Ian @ Aug 5th 2008 1:05AM]

i truly hate you.. you mention 3g in about EVERY SINGLE POST. Why? why do you like looking like a douchebag? why are you stupid? why must you be able to reproduce? and most of all why do you exist?

signed from the person who hates you most of all

ian

[Philster @ Aug 5th 2008 12:40PM]

You're funny! I'm sure people have told you that.

I hope you find what you're looking for at the bottom of that red cup!

Funny guy!

[Greg Pace @ Aug 5th 2008 1:06AM]

How do it know?

[roen @ Aug 5th 2008 1:31AM]

how do you speak English?

[maniac20 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:15AM]

Kind of reminds me of minority report but without the glass.

[grabbydad @ Aug 18th 2008 10:32PM]

This thing Fs minority report in the ass.

[Johannes Hansen @ Aug 11th 2008 6:38AM]

Neat trick... The hologram is probably made using a screen in the floor and a glass plate at 45 degreees in between the performer and the spectator. Just like those old ghost shows in the theaters... U remember those?

[gabe @ Aug 5th 2008 1:11AM]

Youtube link for us iPhone users?

[Imran @ Aug 5th 2008 4:06AM]

Should've got an N95 with its built in Flash player.

[Commander P5 @ Aug 5th 2008 6:02AM]

This thing is awesomw ^^

Maybe a bit slow in response, but i'm looking at this tecnology
like a window on the future :3

[Carl Vitullo @ Aug 5th 2008 10:46AM]

maybe you should stop trying to be special and USE A COMPUTER.

[Philster @ Aug 5th 2008 12:48PM]

@ Gabe
Yeah, dude... you should seriously not say stuff like that. It makes us look bad.

[posted with love]

[Tyler Ransom @ Aug 5th 2008 3:27PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egAl6sNMaqE

[Tohe @ Aug 5th 2008 10:09AM]

that was pretty sweet...
A future without sore fingers is a win...

[emanuelle @ Aug 5th 2008 1:25AM]

73721303129377972nd

[pete @ Aug 5th 2008 8:14AM]

dialed that, got your ansaphone - left you a msg

[Bandit5317 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:26AM]

Were they using some sort of see-through screen to project it on, like the ghosts in disney's haunted house ride, or was it really projecting the images on nothing but air? If it was just air, that's flippin' insane.

[eb @ Aug 5th 2008 3:45AM]

I think that would kind of defeat the purpose of a "hologram"

[mackid105 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:27AM]

wow this is awesome! would be cool for someone to make a demo of someone playing holographic game. thats one thing of the future i'm really looking forward to. just hand me my gun or sword and put me right in the action

[joe blow @ Aug 5th 2008 1:32AM]

I just don't get this. A laggy, disorganized scroll of randomly rotating, untagged photos you have to swim/scroll through. What is the application and utility?

[absurdio @ Aug 5th 2008 3:19AM]

Seconded. Honestly, I'm still waiting for someone to demonstrate a use for multi-touch tech that doesn't promote/depend on clutter and disorganization.

Don't get me wrong. It looks amazing (albeit laggy), but I think we ought to be working on "what's the point?" rather than "How can we make this more futuristic?"

[kidcanuck @ Aug 5th 2008 4:14AM]

Well I think the fact that it's a *hologram* sort of takes the whole utility thing out of the picture. I think it's more of a demonstration of what could be done in the future with this technology, not by any stretch of the mind something being designed for productivity. At least not yet.

I think.

[ScooterDe @ Aug 5th 2008 6:45AM]

I'm wonder why all these touch-screen demonstrators never seem to find a suitable photograph. Swivel, stretch, zoom, pan, yawn.

[mackid105 @ Aug 5th 2008 1:30AM]

wow this is awesome! would be cool for someone to make a demo of someone playing holographic game. thats one thing of the future i'm really looking forward to. just hand me my gun or sword and put me right in the action ...... sorry if it double posts i saw my message here one min then it was gone so i'm sending it again

[Scott @ Aug 5th 2008 1:32AM]

he's using a wii-mote. i mean really, who isn't these days?

demo is awesome, a bit repetitive. i wonder if touch technology will ever compensate for those wonderfully quick keyboard shortcuts that we've all come to love. afterall, i don't just want to throw the picture aside after i imperfectly resize it six different ways... i want to alt-f4 that b*tch.

[Zak @ Aug 5th 2008 2:04AM]

I'm one of the interns there and I can promise you, it is not a wii-mote. Doesn't even look remotely white.