3d user interface
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TAT's Dimension S3D is a user interface for stereoscopic TVs (video)
You can't quite see it without 3D glasses, of course, but this clock is actually sticking out of the screen -- one of several illustrious illusions in this latest concept interface from the dreamers at TAT, spotted at Open Mobile Summit 2010. Give that watch face a spin, and you'll find a working countdown timer on the back, or browse through icon-based music, weather and Twitter interfaces, a media browser and a Rubik's Cube that spins in 3D space. The firm's calling the setup Dimension S3D, though like most TAT concepts, it's not for sale in its present form -- the company hopes to license the underlying framework to TV manufacturers who want to build menus in 3D, and hopefully attract content providers to build 3D apps as well. TAT wasn't naming names, but said that two "major" TV manufacturers had already expressed interest in possibly signing up. See what it looks like (in just two dimensions, of course) on video after the break.
Tangible 3D UI being developed in Japan (video)
People have been trying to sell us 3D this and 3D that for ages, but for the most part it's always been the same flat surface we're looking at and poking with our fingers. Some restless souls in Japan, however -- including Engadget's very own Kentaro Fukuchi -- have begun developing a way for computers to recognize a person's interactions with real objects and to respond accordingly. The essence of this new technique is to use translucent rubbery objects, whose diffraction of specially polarized light is picked up by a camera. Thus, relatively subtle actions like squeezing and stretching can be picked up by the different light results produced. Still in the early stages of design, the system is hoped to assist in surgery training, though we've got video of its more fun potential uses after the break.[via New Scientist]
