Sony and Atracsys develop 3D interface for ORs, sci-fi franchises (video)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted November 6th 2009 11:37AM
posted November 6th 2009 11:37AM
You know what the world needs? Another company peddling their take on the touch interface as being "just like Minority Report!" Sun, Raytheon, Oblong -- it's a pretty obvious press hook (as well as a pretty awesome area of research), but every once in a while some such technology does come around that begs for a closer look. A collaboration between Sony Europe and Atracsys (a Swiss company specializing in optical tracking) ICU is a dual camera-based system that tracks and analyzes body movements in three dimensions, in real-time. Initially designed for use with a computer in a sterile operating theater, the interface not only notices subtle changes in the position of your body, arm, hand, or finger position, but it's also determine rough age, sex, or facial expression of the user. We're guessing that this bad boy has some novel gaming potential as well (count on the folks at Engadget to bring everything down to their level)! PR / videos after the break.
Sony demonstrates revolutionary PC control interface at Vision 2009
Camera based system tracks 3D body movements for truly intuitive computer control
Sony Europe's Image Sensing Solutions (ISS) division has demonstrated a revolutionary PC control interface based on three dimensional vision cameras. The system, called ICU, analyses body movements and enables users to go beyond the mouse or touchscreen to interact more intuitively with a computer.
The technology is the first of its kind to be demonstrated and is the result of a collaboration between Sony ISS and Atracsys, a Swiss optical tracking specialist. The interface is able to detect and act upon any 'gesture' or body movement by tracking subtle changes in body, arm, hand or finger position. The ICU system is also sensitive enough to determine a user's approximate age, sex and emotion; recognising happiness, anger, surprise, sadness and neutrality.
The interface is based on two Sony ISS XCD-V60 cameras (tinyurl.com/SonyXCD-V60) linked together stereoscopically to create a 3D image. These high specification digital IEEE1394b cameras transmit image data at 90fps to a PC running Atracsys' proprietary video analysis software. Input from the cameras can be used to control a cursor, avatar or robot.
"ICU can be used in virtually any scenario, be it gaming, industrial, medical or retail," commented Gaëtan Marti, CEO at Atracsys. "Currently, we're receiving a lot of interest from retail marketing companies wanting to develop truly interactive shop window displays. In this application, a user pointing at a watch or electronic gadget, for example, could command the display of additional information from the web about the product, such as reviews, pricing information or technical specifications."
Arnaud Destruels, marketing manager at Sony ISS, said, "such interfaces were conceived many decades ago, with science fiction films using them to convey a futuristic feeling. The large time gap between conception and implementation highlights just how complex the task has been as well as the coding expertise at Atracsys."
Camera based system tracks 3D body movements for truly intuitive computer control
Sony Europe's Image Sensing Solutions (ISS) division has demonstrated a revolutionary PC control interface based on three dimensional vision cameras. The system, called ICU, analyses body movements and enables users to go beyond the mouse or touchscreen to interact more intuitively with a computer.
The technology is the first of its kind to be demonstrated and is the result of a collaboration between Sony ISS and Atracsys, a Swiss optical tracking specialist. The interface is able to detect and act upon any 'gesture' or body movement by tracking subtle changes in body, arm, hand or finger position. The ICU system is also sensitive enough to determine a user's approximate age, sex and emotion; recognising happiness, anger, surprise, sadness and neutrality.
The interface is based on two Sony ISS XCD-V60 cameras (tinyurl.com/SonyXCD-V60) linked together stereoscopically to create a 3D image. These high specification digital IEEE1394b cameras transmit image data at 90fps to a PC running Atracsys' proprietary video analysis software. Input from the cameras can be used to control a cursor, avatar or robot.
"ICU can be used in virtually any scenario, be it gaming, industrial, medical or retail," commented Gaëtan Marti, CEO at Atracsys. "Currently, we're receiving a lot of interest from retail marketing companies wanting to develop truly interactive shop window displays. In this application, a user pointing at a watch or electronic gadget, for example, could command the display of additional information from the web about the product, such as reviews, pricing information or technical specifications."
Arnaud Destruels, marketing manager at Sony ISS, said, "such interfaces were conceived many decades ago, with science fiction films using them to convey a futuristic feeling. The large time gap between conception and implementation highlights just how complex the task has been as well as the coding expertise at Atracsys."
See more video at our hub!
So when are our contact lenses supplying augmented reality to us coming?
just before the robots take over
Dr. Marti seems to be high or on Valium.
Spreadsheets, man.
http://www.technotuesday.com/?p=536
"100% angry probability"
"77.6% male probability"
So the 22.6% feminine quality in him is all showing on his face.
not as cool as MS surface.
Yes, but this one is limitless. You can take it anywhere you want, and you can also enlarge it to a giant presentation size, unlike MS table, they are probably working on the formulas and scripts for recognition at the moment. The quality would be still a projector kind, but very clear in dark room areas. It has a lot of potential!
Apparently in the future everyone will be dining on a TV instead in front of it. Talk about progress!
Atracsys, good name for a company for Sony to work with.
would this be better then just have glasses that can do that.
i would like to have bionic vision with a augmented reality contact lens
i think the only thing that is stopping it is how to power the contact lens wirelessly.
I don't think your eyes would be able to focus on something so close
That's just Microsoft surface technology wit a Sony and Atracsys spin on it.
That's exactly what I thought when I read the title. Sony and Atracsys develop 3D interface? More like Sony sees the Microsoft table from years ago and is finally playing catchup.
So they could have used the Minority Report reference for the MS "Natural" but instead they waste it on this.
Wow.. They threw that in there just for you, buddy!
I know....ROFL...what sony is showing off is not bad and the videos are better...MS just seems to be the leader of this movement. I just hope it will run on a program that has been built from the ground up.
PS4 Confirmed!
"rough ... sex"?
that demo with the Rolly involving smiling and some kind of game...thing is bizarre. Was the physical Rolly in the background suppose to move based on smiling, too? If my Rolly moved based on smiling, i think it would put it over the top as the most insane 'sound entertainment player' evah.
Minority report did for UI developers the same that the Dead Poets Society did for the community of poets:to kill an entire generation pointing to a stupid idea that works fine in movie but in real world.
I'm pretty sure they used this in a scene from Quantum Of Solace (the most recent 007 movie).
In before patent lawsuits.
Soon, perhaps we too can become pasty-complexioned, humorless people who sit in darkened, windowless rooms staring down at the table while considering others only insofar as we want to reduce them to a squares containing a small number of pixels.
The first video kind of reminded me of Microsoft Surface
Call me when some nerd in his basement makes the table that Tony Starks had rigged up in his crib.
Engadget: your coverage of user interface research and HCI is shoddy, please get better.
The work here by Sony, which is nice work in it's own right, is derivative and there is little difference between this and other work such as ms surface, and the bazillion face reco demos out there. Also, this isn't a 'Minority Report' style interface -- one demo is a multitouch table and the other has non-gestural, computer vision interactions going on. Minority Report was about controlling computers remotely with a vocabulary of hand gestures -- not touching screens or making faces. If you want to slam companies for incorrectly using the Minority Report meme (and please do, it's annoying as hell when most of them had nothing to do with Minority Report nor even come close to building on the ideas found there) to push their wares at least understand this difference first.
To be rather obvious, this stuff is old school now. Sony is late to the party. The only reason I took interest in this story was the little cube thingy they were moving about on the top. And there was little focus on that. Facial recognition is nice, but until it filters down to the general public, it doesn't do anything for me. When I can walk into my local WalMart and be greeted by the store itself, instead of a half asleep human, then I'll be impressed.
The PS4 will be the size of a small car.
project natal is slowing becoming project notatall. LMAO
go sony, go sony, go sony.
BLAH
this looks boss