Minority Report UI designer demos his tech at TED (video)
In February 2010, the man who built the technology of Minority Report twice -- once for the movie, and once in real life -- spoke at TED about the future of user interface design. Yesterday, TED posted John Underkoffler's entire fifteen-minute video presentation -- a copy of which you'll find right after the break. Get a curated glimpse into his company's tech in the following demo, and hear from the man himself when the gloves might come off. And if that doesn't satisfy your appetite, read an in-depth interview with Underkoffler at our more coverage link.
























@ajkun to be downranked into oblivion yes...
On a serious note this guy is my hero, he just conceptualizes baller ass interfaces
@ajkun Maybe in stupidity.
This UI looks great, but I don't see a use for it on mobile devices.
I love TED. Why would anyone hate them ?
@symbian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blBohrmyo-I
another asome TED video
@ajkun next time just post "dumbest." We will understand.
Meh.. Anyone for gorilla arm?
@JarekPL you should think of it as something like "six sense"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blBohrmyo-I
Both projects are really cool and probly will lead to a change in mobile/person computing akin from going from walking to super sonic flying instantly
Oh boy. I want this NOW (or in near future) to be able to use , abuse ( :D ) , and so forth.
Amazing and in the same time - simple. I just want it integrated in my screen bezel directly or via usb/firewire/lightpeek connection on the of the screen like a webcam seeing what i'm doing. And at first - I wouldn't mind the gloves , later on , we can put 'em away.
Shit , i'm excited like a little child when you are peeling in front of his eyes an egg ! :D
@Fragmented This guy combined with steve jobs' ambition, bill gates' for the people attitude, Google's we dont giev a F we are gonna do it: busnisess style, and a shit ton of money and we would have the Jetsons in real life
Hate to be a naysayer, but it seems like all the actions he performed could be done quicker using a keyboard and mouse with a well designed interface.
The collaborative section from 10:15 looks like a complete mess!
@mojo8472 i dont think he has ever been afraid to admit his UIs are years away from feasibility, but he does seem to be trying to make this one a reality in his lifetime
@mojo8472
i have thought the same thing since the first time i saw the movie. it's also inappropriate to most offices, nevermind airplanes, classrooms, and libraries. people already complain about the wiimote--what if you had to flap your arms around just send email?
@patches66
Why would you have to flap your arms? The whole point of this exercise is to evolve user interfaces. Keeping the arm flapping from the Wii would be counterproductive to the whole "evolving" part. The user could send an email through something far more sublte, such as selecting the piece of data they wish to send and then making a lower case "e" with their figer "over" the data, which could then bring up an email prompt of some sort for selecting an address. The whole point of this is to think outside the box and see where it goes. Not to cling to old ways of thinking.
Natal for the 360 seems to have more in common with his ideas than the Wii does. Which isn't be surprising considering Microsoft's interests in this field.
@mojo8472
You know, I reckon a lot of things we do on our computer now could be done much faster in command-line interface by a professional. In fact, I think that's why we have shortcuts that we use for some actions you can access from the menu bar, etc.
The point is not to do things faster, but maybe more intuitively, and definitely to open up new possibilities in human machine interaction. For certain tasks people will probably prefer the old interface, you are correct.
@onlymyrailgun Agreed, my company's software was character-based at some point, and someone well trained in it could be more efficient, however nobody uses that anymore - it is now all GUI. A little slower, but everyone can pick it up very quickly.
@mojo8472
Seconded. Sure, this UI is cool and innovative, but it seems to be too far ahead of our time. In personal computing, we do not have the need to manipulate data in three dimensions because we simply do not have that much. There are also the other problems three dimensions bring. The user must stand a hang his arms in the air. This does not beat touchscreen or mouse/keyboard interface. The solution for our near term computing feature is the transition to 1D. I suggest you all see R. Clayton Miller's 10/GUI.
@JW
Well imagine lying on you sofa reading this... as I do right now... and you want to scroll... imagine just flicking you hand, not having to lean over the computer to do that... wouldnt it be great?
From the start we only need bits and pieces of this
@JarekPL
I have to disagree. Assuming this does take off in the commercial world we will see stores, theaters, banks etc with this tech. having a phone means you can incorporate your personal data into their cloud wherever you are and also draw information from their could
@joshky
Yes, but what I thought is... can You imagine Your phone equiped with projector? And if You went to shop and want ot buy some stuff using Your credit card, instead of giving it to assistent You just drag barcodes to *physical* container in Your phone? Isn't it easier to pay by c-card by cashier or scan barcode with camera of Your mobile phone?
Doesn't it sound TOO abstract to You? I understand it's future, but it's useless at the moment - too messy and too unstable to be useful.
I understand the point of this UI. But it makes reality *virtual*. Shouldn't it be in the opposite way, though?
concept was used in the 2002 science fiction movie Minority Report . As noted in the DVD commentary, the director Steven Spielberg stated the concept of the device came from consultation with Microsoft during the making of the movie. One of the film's technology consultant's associates from MIT later joined Microsoft to work on the Surface project.[6] from wikipedia microsoft surface article
"This inspired thinking shared with you by AT&T. Your world. Delivered. (*)"
*Your world must equal to or less than 2GB.
@pika2000 Don't forget you can no longer email the CEO in your world.
@JonsMind
hahaahaa thats funny!
@JarekPL I don't think your thinking in enough dimensions. What if a mobile device was an augmented reality heads up display?
This article needs more comments and feedback, it's so epic. I watched the whole video. So great. By the time something like this becomes the norm in out society, I'll probably be seeing my grand kids using it and I'll be secretly jealous inside.
Am I the only one thinking that this technology is already being commercialized to the consumers? MS Natal?
@Jeffmetanna
No, you are not.
Brilliance. It's not about these current ideas, but what they could lead to
The impressive things in these demos are typically the UIs, not the interaction. A mouse can do 3D (x,y,zoom) so you don't need gloves and to stand in front of the machine.
A standard machine can do all the stuff that was shown on that screen and in a more efficient way. Touch interaction can do some things more accurately but not the way it's done here.
I cant wait for this to come out, the average dumb American will drop thier ipads and iphones when this stuff comes out, eat that Steve Jobs!
I actually bought the blu ray version of minority report a couple of weeks ago. I was really immerised in PKDs La Noire film, which was adopted into a film by Spielberg. I was watching the making of Minority Report and these guys from MIT showing off this technology in disc 2 of minority report. I'm really excited about this technology and I believe by the next decade this technology will probably hit mainstream but wont reach critical mass into the the 2nd half of next decade. I hope windows utlizes this technology first and have exclusive rights to this technology before Apple does. I hope MIT comes out with that photo technology that was shown in Blade Runner another La Noire film adobpted from PKD novel Android dream electric sheep. THe photo technology lets you see whats in the photo in other angles that is invisible to the eye!.
@JarekPL "I understand the point of this UI. But it makes reality *virtual*. Shouldn't it be in the opposite way, though?"
You just nailed it! The future is that reality becomes virtual. Damn, I'd like to tradmark that. Exciting and frightening concept...
They want the killer app for this type of UI? Okay here it is, drumroll please, PORN!!!!!!! Imagine the porn this will create. One step away from the holo-deck.
technically impressive, but i am not impressed. Do i see myself using this? Not really. Do I want to use my two hands to make some sort of graphical selection from a set of images spread out over the screen? I'd rather type my keyword in the search bar, thank you
@boxieblue
Imagine having a really big screen as a computer monitor.
A screen that you can interact with from different distances, and different possitions.
A keyboard is pretty good when you are close to a small monitor.
But you have to be in the right possition.
But sure, writing on this would be a pain in the***
@Fatawan This one like the surface with a twist looks like a minority report like UI running on steroids. http://j.mp/atractable-super-computer
Am I the only one who saw minority report and thought what a horrible idea this was due to the massive increase in repetive strain injuries which it would conjure?
Many people, either for pay or love, can spend hours on a computer on a regular basis.
This idea looked neat in a movie.
For actual application it is a failure.
@savagemike
so you think this is more of a strain th the human body, than typing a Keyboard?
The human body was contructed to do this kind of things... but most of us have been still-sitting for so long time that some of our muscles need a bit training... but sure, the strain is lower that using keyboard and mice.
The UI might be a bit impractical, but the interaction part is not the problem.
not very smooth or practica now but I want one
@JarekPL
Dragging the barcodes in and speeding up the checkout process....
Jarek, you just invented something interesting. I might test it tonight.
Thanks for the information shared here. that was an interesting and informative. I had a good experience by participating in the Adobe DevSummit in 2009 and looking forward to attend Adobe Flash Platform Summit 2010 as well. AFPS 2010 is the single largest Flash Platform conference in India which features topics like Flash, Flex, Flash Platform, AIR 2.5, Andriod, RIA, LiveCycles, PHP and more. I found the information about the conference from adobesummit.com