Oblong's g-speak: the 'Minority Report' OS brought to life
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Nov 14th 2008 6:43PM
posted Nov 14th 2008 6:43PM
[Thanks, Jamie]
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coolest fucking thing I've seen in a long time....
well second coolest I guess... The douche above me must be the coolest...
I have just completely annihilated a perfectly good pair of pants and an office chair.
@jerimaih
is it YOUR first xD
Not my first, but it was your mom's first Jeremiah
How could it be someone's mom's first? Wouldn't it have to be at least her second?
IVF could make it so that it's her first. Or she could be an adoptive parent.
Maybe I was claiming to be his Dad? Or maybe it was meant as her first Jeremiah...not her first time
Why you gotta flame a brother for being on top - unlike your patriots LMAO!
Did you get your wee hopes up of being first and there I was? Sorry.
You can be first if it makes you feel better (first looser).
And the name calling - anonymity makes you, well, a bigger douche.
All I said that was first was vagina...then I said I was kaikai's mom's first Jeremiah, but that is only because 99% of people like momma jokes. Your the one that was not only lame, tried to defend said lameness.
jeremiah, I am your father.. *hmppph voosh hmpph voosh*
but she was so fat Jabba was rolling sideways in and out of her vagina
I shit my pants!
Never thought i'ld live to see the day when i can no longer sit to use a computer
thx
these replies are getting consistently less in intelligent, but whatever.
"this is g-speak" - well this is the coolest f***ing interface I've ever seen. Its so intuitive. If only they can refine it so that its easy to use, and works practically universally, I could see the being a very common interface for many technologies, not just computers, by around 2015.
just imagine playing a fps game on their setup. If the controls were properly integrated, it would be almost complete in-game immersion. This kind of thing keeps me really excited about the future.
Next up: The Johnny Mnemonic goggles and gloves internet navigation system.
i would love to see that myself, but that deals in static field manipulation i believe, something i don't think is very useful real-world yet. otherwise we'd see the door panels used in sci-fi, like dead space :P
Where do the wood balls pop out?
screw the wood balls, i want to know who makes the music they used in that video! i love good ambient stuff :)
@Chris
I'm not saying it is... but it really reminds me of something Clint Mansell would compose.
Chris, as a Porcupine Tree fan that makes sense :)
Ever hear of IEM?
Best post so far. Why go to all the trouble of designing the Minority Report Criminal Finder (TM), if you don't have some 'savants' in a giant petri dish feeding you suspects on elegantly carved and polished wooden balls?
@Chris - I'm pretty sure it's a track by Murcof but I can't remember which one - http://www.last.fm/music/Murcof
Actually - my mistake, it's not Murdof, it's Deaf Center - "Lamp Mein" - http://www.last.fm/music/Deaf+Center/_/Lamp+Mien
Right under the wood penis.
OMG that is insane...Well, Hello :)
wow, just wow
i am tired of the whole "minority report"
because that was sort of rediculous, but this, this is something much better
i can't believe this is real
IT can't believe YOU'RE real....
think about it....
then pray.
Wow, that was profound. Can you imagine this integrated with a video game? Unbelievably awesome.
This is indeed mindblowing. I would love to try this out.
hmmm. i want it but.... mouse + keyboard will reign until direct thoughts are translated into GUI manip.
"...i want it but.... mouse + keyboard will reign until direct thoughts are translated into GUI manip."
WRONG. They already have achieved that! Thought translated to mouse movement for quadriplegics!
Reference 1 - 60 minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4564186n
Reference 2 - CNET reports 60 minutes: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10080852-76.html
ultimately, you will be plugged into "the matrix" running on windows XP
:)
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1886349
no need for hand gestures, kb, and mouse crap
The Matrix running XP? What happens when The Matrix gets a BSOD :/?
@ Drake
Yes, but why think about moving a mouse when you can just think "save", "minimize", "delete"... Come to think of it... I can't wait to see the format war on the "thought" API?!? I'll get to work on "mindJAX" now ;)
@Valicore: it will be a Green Screen of Death, not blue.
I...
....
...wow.
Where Do I get MINE?
"computer [a] interface"?
That makes no sense. [a] computer interface, possibly...
Either that or it's almost midnight on Friday and I'm so drunk I can't read properly.
Maybe I'm just obtuse, but I can't see the killer app for this. You can have my mouse and keyboard when you take them from my cold, dead, carpal tunnel-riddled hands.
CNNs "Magic wall" 2012?
Unless we can find some real-world Minority Report use for it, I see it as either A) Some bodacious film editing environment, or B) A presentation/performance OS. That globe at the end of the video really showed that to me. People could display business data through the interface. Again, it would almost be a performance, seeing how the interface looks to have a steep learning curve.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is not a dependency of keyboard and mouse use.
www.colemak.com
Think about this... It is the ultimate gaming system. It puts you in the game. You move through the environment... Interact with objects. They could put sensors on the weapons, and then it would be actual trigger reactions and actual aiming. It would be awesome for a first person shooter.
OH MY FUCKING GOD
I always wondered what nerdgasm was. Now I know.
Feels good, don't it?
The new speed record for going from Huh? to WANT has just been bested
Funniest thing I read all day.
Copy/paste?
You, my friend have just won the internet.
That took me a second. But yes, best comment ever.
The internets belong to you...
All our BASE belong to you!
It's pretty cool... but I want to see this in a USEFUL setting
Only good for end-users.
I'm nearly as impressed as everyone else but where are the real world applications in this? Learning sets of gestures upon gestures, typing, space to have that whole set up?
This is neat but it's just for show - it's not practical or marketable.
I'm out.
@Raheem: I am pretty sure "they" used to say that about the personal computer. "No market, a few in the world at best..." and other things like that.
Just saying.
Starcraft II, duh.
FPS games would be great on this...
This is all great and all, but so far i have't seen a realistic implementation of these technologies besides zooming in on pictures and moving them around (how many times have we seen that anyway with tech demos?). Show me an actual os user interface that could work given everyday tasks like email, word processing, photo editing and internet browsing. Then i'll be truly excited about this kind of stuff.
Ditto. I'd want a physical keyboard just for the physical feedback, down on that table in front of the dude... but I want to see a real 3D modelling or drafting application using this interface. I want live Jabber, twitter, and RSS feeds in speech bubbles floating up one side of the interface, hotlinking to floating paper scrolls which work as web browser windows.
To really show off these interfaces, we need familiar and real-looking tasks to identify with, not random floating sequences through some schlep's photo gallery. That's why multi-touch interfaces haven't impressed me yet, and it's why hologram and guesture interfaces will continue not to impress me for more than two minutes (the time it takes for the professional programmer in me to wrestle the keyboard away from the nerd in me).
Showing off multi-touch interfaces as interactive restaurant tables, that recognize things brought to the table and allow payment just by laying your credit card on it and tapping through an authorization process... that's one thing. That's a practical application.
This thing is indelibly cool, yes. But it is all fine and dandy only if your job is posing for a movie of you flying lazily through fancy white-on-blue 3D maps sourced from fixed on-disk datasets.
Manipulating CAD files with this would be GODLY. I don't know how this would actually work (like setting dimensions, etc.) but it would be fun nonetheless.
Also, I can only dream of how this will revolutionize the porn industry.
True. First useless post.
If I remember correctly, Minority Report movie character didn't stand 3 metters away from the screen, he was (almost?) touching it with his fingers... Correct me if I am wrong please.
Nope, he was a good distance back.
Yes, it does play every game you can throw at it. More importantly, it induces euphoria for the nerds who use it! That looks amazing, I want one in my house NOW. Screw Surface, this takes the cake.
The cake is a lie...
We have another winner of the Internet...
plus, it's good for the triceps, deltoids and lats.
This is awe-some.
Maybe it's just me, but I can't see what you can actually DO with it besides act like you're Tom Cruise.. play pong maybe..?
But it is truly awesome though... Couple it with some kind of soon-to-be-invented 3D-screen/hologram, perhaps?
ok, so not just me.
So this makes you feel like a self-hating closeted gay midget?
I definetely don't see the marketability for that...
Now make something that makes me feel like Gary Busey for a couple hours and I'll gladly pay for it! That's gotta be better than acid!
I can't wait until the porn industry takes advantage of this.
Well, we all know the 2 biggest drivers of tech is military and porn. I'm sure the Pentagon has had a more advanced version of this for maybe 2 decades. So once porn gets into it, it will be an unstoppable force. Let's hope it gets open sourced.
Open sourced porn? Not sure if want... (O_o)
Now it is truly necessary for hackers to be like this:
http://overcompensating.com/posts/20050906.html
I mean, come on, you guys have no excuse.
Bitchin cool. I think requests for email interface are perhaps not the point of this.
I'm thinking -- military battlespace, film and tv editing, powergrid monitoring / control, air traffic control, etc.
I gotta an iphone for email. This... this is not for email...
I'm in awe, and a bit freaked out at the same time.
Where's the interactive game where you get to be Sylar!?
1984 - the last innovation in computer interfacing with humans. also happens to be the book that you might associate with minority report. god damn Im getting my cospiracy theory machine rolling.
...mommy im scared...there..there watching us...
Homonym fail!
I hear Wolf Blitzer just ejaculated all over the Situation Room.
Second funniest thing I read all day.
Who is this aimed for?
Scientists that are most likely to use this interface would die from physical exhaustion in about 10 minutes, yet those who could potentially sustain would most likely not even get close to such a device.
Me wonders...
It's prolly aimed for Mimes.
Is this real? I just went to their website. It's pretty intense: I/O bulbs, MIT Media lab, etc.
Is this some kind of elaborate gimmick?
Uh Johnny boy...you don't believe it's real when you read it posted by a (somewhat, ahem) tech news forum, but you'll take the word of a bunch of random f*up's in the latrine pit under the article??
No, JJ, it's not real. And you still need to pray.
this is the sheeaaaaaattttttt!!!!
Already have all of this on my MacBook Pro...
OH MY F**K**G GOD!!!
I SCREAMED in my brain so loudly i felt my eardrums were gonna burst from the inside out, when i saw the video. (didn;t want to disturb the neighbours)
Now i understand how girls feel when they look at brad pitt.
this is the coolest thing i've seen on engadget. hands down.
I bet all the Wii fanboys are drooling right now.
"Screw the graphics, I want to wave my arms around!"
The "killer app" for this would be CAD... Imagine someone like an architect designing a space while simultaneously surrounded by it - immersive design. That's what I'm looking forward to.
This pisses me off. How can there be so many positive reactions? Nothing in this video was realistic, reasonable, or useful. It was just a bunch of tech demos that did nothing and showed nothing useful.
I'll bet you're fun at parties.
1. They demoed video playing - no need for a remote control to pause, stop, ff, etc
2. They showed extracting still images from video - useful for graphic/web design folks
3. A brief clip showed the potential for visual data mining (in 3D)
On top of what they showed here are some others:
1. Complex process flows can now be seen and navigated in 3D
2. Engineering/Architecture design work
3. Collaboration for graphic/video design work
etc, etc ... once the technology is in place there will be tons of practical uses for it.
Somewhere, MS Surface is crying.
Actually, I think it's pretty clear that this thing will pass the tipping point for affordable mass distribution as soon as somebody gets some truly interactive pr0n on this bad bitch.
I also suspect that your arms/hands aren't the only, uh, "appendage" you could use to manipulate things in the 3D space, ifyaknowwhatImean (just close your eyes and picture that, eh?)
SkyNet will be "online" sooner than we think.
We better find John Connor very soon or
go live in a cave before the MACHINES take over.
Nice, they even zoomed in on Long Island. Wonder what applications it has?