Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 28th 2010 2:38AM
posted May 28th 2010 2:38AM
We've seen a Minority Report-esque interface or two hundred by this point, but Toshiba's AirSwing really caught our attention. Using little more than a webcam and some software, this bad boy places a semi-transparent image of the operator on the display -- all the easier to maneuver through the menus. And according to Toshiba, that software only utilizes about three percent of a 400MHz ARM 11 CPU -- meaning that you have plenty of processor left for running your pre-crime diagnostics. There is no telling when something like this might become commercially available, but the company plans to bundle it in commercial displays for malls and the like. Video after the break.
That's hot
well natal is the $149 solution for your current tv set up.
@annoynimous Assuming you have an Xbox 360 already. $300-400 otherwise
@annoynimous Speaking of Natal, though, I'm curious to see if it will have accurate enough head tracking to know where your line of sight is, (once you've told it where the TV is, what its dimensions are, etc,) then you can just hold up your hand and do a pinching motion to squish people's heads on screen and it actually pops them
Misses some smoothness
It's pre-cog
I don't know, I like innovation, but I'm pretty lazy too. Is there some benefit to going from barely moving on my sofa and navigating similar interfaces with a slight move of my thumb to having to wave my arms around to do basic tasks?
It seems rather than sorting out the interfaces to try and make them easier, more intuitive and faster to navigate to your desired content were trying to find news ways of navigating the SAME old interfaces.
Scrolling through a long list is less efficient than simply being able to search and go right to the content you want.
I can see this being more intuitive. Making the interface more analogous to the real world and how you interact with it would make more sense to a broader group of people...but it also makes it more cumbersome to people, which is pretty much everyone here who are used to remotes, control pads and computers, as we're used to the control metaphors we use everyday.
Yeah I'm going to stick with watching this (http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/23/mit-researchers-develop-the-most-fabulous-gesture-control-techni/) as it's 1000% more interesting and can lead to a whole lot more fun... Not only that but with a simple webcam and gloves I could definitely get into some form of gaming with it... Remember these are students not a company... Sorry but Airswing is pretty lame albeit cheap...
Be great for http://www.owonder.com/heyyu
My daughter was doing something similar on our TV with the PS3 and its camera using an aquarium game/program/screensaver about a year ago. Useless, but kept her occupied. :-)
You could see an image of her on the screen (like a reflection). She can move her hand back and forth, and the fish follow it. Shake her hand fast, and the fish scattered. Hold her hand near the top of the screen and pretend she is dropping food into the tank and food would start dropping in the water.
I don't see the point of having the transparent overlay of yourself!! Any image recog system, natal, possibly PS move, is just as intuitive if you don't have any visual feedback of yourself.
I would hope most people wont need telling when they've moved their arms around right in front of them!
The overlay is distracting and detracts from the image quality when viewing photos.
Why do you need the overlay? With that delay it looks like it'll just confuse you since it lags behind the reflection of yourself that you'd see in the screen anyway.
Looks a little buggy... Long way from the consumer world
Seems like just a short step from there to inserting oneself into porn in real time... with a branching story line depending upon your actions.