Ah, the MIT Media Lab, home to
Big Bird's illegitimate progeny,
augmented reality projects aplenty, and now three-dimensional gestural computing. The new bi-directional display being demoed by the Cambridge-based boffins performs both multitouch functions that we're familiar with and hand movement recognition in the space in front of the screen -- which we're
also familiar with, but mostly
from the movies. The gestural motion tracking is done via embedded optical sensors behind the display, which are allowed to see what you're doing by the LCD alternating rapidly (invisible to the human eye, but probably not to human pedantry) between what it's displaying to the viewer and a pattern for the camera array. This differs from projects like
Natal, which have the camera offset from the display and therefore cannot work at short distances, but if you want even more detail, you'll find it in the informative video after the break.
[Thanks,
Rohit]
posted December 11th 2009 5:31AM
BiDi Screen: It swings both ways.
Not digging the hand reflection. Half fail
"Forget multi-touch: Fluid Tunes lets you control iTunes with no touch"
http://www.macworld.com.au/news/view/forget-multi-touch-fluid-tunes-lets-you-control-itunes-with-no-touch-1357
http://majicjungle.com/fluidtunes.html
haha am I the only one who can't listen to this guy talk without cracking up?
seriously! they couldn't find ANYONE else to do the voice?
The sensors are in the monitor, not behind it. that is the point.
@13Omega
"...The gestural motion tracking is done via embedded optical sensors _behind_ the display..."
You failed :-)
@(TripleMartin) "these LCDs have a light sensing array of pixels" That quote threw me off. I see now the sensors are 2.5 cm from the display.
my only concern is to what extent can they minimalise input and output lag, its a great concept but they may need to find a different way to handle the input since switching between input and output mode constantly seems to cause mass lag.
Yeah...
...now imagine that you're at work and you have to sit at your desk for 5 hours and use that thing. It might be good for the general home use, but I'd like to keep the use of my arms.
Very nice for a prototype.
The kind of tracking technology sounds a bit like those http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/evoluce-one-gives-you-47-inches-of-multitouch-surface-to-play-wi/ ("Integrated-Through-Screen-Optics")
Definitely a game changer! Wow!