gesture
Latest
Microsoft hints at touchless Surface combining camera and transparent OLED (video)
We've always wondered whether Microsoft's multitouch table would actually ever arrive, dreaming of Minority Report hijinx all the while, but after seeing what the company's Applied Sciences Group is currently cooking up -- a touchless telepresence display -- we'd rather drop that antiquated pinch-to-zoom stuff in favor of what might be Surface's next generation. Starting with one of Samsung's prototype transparent OLED panels, Microsoft dropped a sub-two-inch camera behind the glass, creating a 3D gesture control interface that tracks your every move by literally seeing through the display. Combined with that proprietary wedge-shaped lens we saw earlier this month and some good ol' Johnny Chung Lee headtracking by the man himself, we're looking at one hell of a screen. Don't you dare read another word without seeing the prototype in a trifecta of videos after the break.
Kinect tech destined for TV-embedded greatness in 2011, HTPC integration later this year
From Tel Aviv unknown to Xbox gaming wunderkind, PrimeSense has already had quite a run, but the camera-control tech that powers Kinect is destined for new applications before long. VP Adi Berenson tells us the company's already signed deals to put PrimeSense inside HTPCs by the end of the year, and has at least one cable company ready to launch a gesture-controlled set top box by summer 2011. The end goal is to provide natural human control over TV-based media consumption, said Berenson, who's working to get cameras in TVs themselves sometime late next year. Like Kinect, these solutions will have a pair of 640 x 480 camera sensors to measure user position in 3D space, but don't expect them to have motorized tilt functionality or voice recognition -- PrimeSense said it won't be able to make those available for manufacturers, as they're all Microsoft ideas. The gesture recognition has reportedly evolved, though, and we're eager to check that out soon. See what it used to look like in our GDC 2010 preview. Update: Just to be absolutely clear, this is not Microsoft's Kinect that's slated for an HTPC and set-top-box near you, but rather PrimeSense, the 3D camera sensor technology behind it.
Fujitsu's motion sensing laptop interface makes no sense (video)
We're not sure what Fujitsu is thinking here, but it has to stop. Get a load of its motion control interface running on a 15.6-inch laptop. Yes, a 15-inch laptop. We might be able to understand this if it was plugged into a big flat panel television or projector, but trying to manipulate those itty bitty controls from 10-feet away is, well, silly. The Core i3-350M-powered Fujitsu LifeBook AH700/5A does feature HDMI-out but you still have to place the laptop in front of you (and the TV) with the display popped open so that the camera can see your movements. On a positive note, it looks like a great way to develop your wax-on / wax-off ninja tuna skills.
EyeSight's hand-waving, gesture-based UI now available for Android (video)
Sure, the Evo's front-facing camera enables you to call your snookums and let them see your mug while you two exchange sweet nothings. But, wouldn't it be much better if you could tell your phone to talk to the hand? Now it can... at least in theory, with the availability eyeSight libraries for Android. EyeSight's Natural User Interface relies on a phone's camera to detect hand motions, enabling developers to write apps that change tracks, ignore callers, and display text messages with a wave. The down-side is that those apps need to be specifically written to work in this way, and while the libraries have been available for Nokia handsets since last year, right now we're seeing a whopping four programs that use it (including the hugely important "Fart Control," which turns your phone into a "motion detecting fart machine"). So, you should probably not expect a revolution here either. Video demo from the Nokia days is embedded just below.
L'Artisan Electronique ushers in the era of the virtual pottery wheel (video)
Want to reenact Ghost but don't care for all the messy bits? Let lasers do the work for you. L'Artisan Electronique uses a laser scanner to detect your hand-sculpting gestures, transfers their gently urging instructions over to a computerized 3D model, and -- should your production exhibit sufficient creativity or je ne sais quoi -- prints it out using a 3D ceramic printer. This is part of a Design by Performance exhibition taking place over in Belgium and is seriously one of the cooler things you're going to come across today -- or any other day, for that matter. See it on video after the break.
Synaptics intros ClickEQ, multi-finger TouchPad-IS trackpad solutions
Synaptics has been a serious roll of late, first introducing those luscious multitouch gestures to older trackpads, and last month extending its Gesture Suite to Linux and Chrome OS. Here at Computex, the company is expanding its TouchPad family of solutions, with the multi-finger PC TouchPad-IS range seeing the first update. Aside from being able to recognize four-finger gestures, the new platform prevents accidental activation of the cursor when a user's palm unintentionally contacts the TouchPad, and it also brings the aforementioned multi-finger capabilities of a touchscreen right onto a PC's trackpad. Next up is the new ClickEQ, which is hailed as the "industry's first hinge-less uniform force, uniform click depth ClickPad mechanical design." As you'd expect, this feels an awful lot like the glass trackpad that Apple's freshest MacBooks have, but you won't find us kvetching about getting a similar technology onto run-of-the-mill laptops and netbooks. Moving on, the company is also introducing new OEM customization capabilities for Synaptics gesture workflow technology, Scrybe, which will allow users to store specific trackpad settings and references so the whole family can control the laptop their own way. Sadly, there's no published ship date for any of these whiz-bang contraptions, but we're cautiously hoping to see it implemented in at least prototype form as we scour the show floor.
Microsoft Research toys with the cosmos... using forefinger and thumb (video)
We've always been suckers for Minority Report tech, and Microsoft Research's latest attempt is not to be missed. Thought pinch-to-zoom was quaint? Try pinching the sky in this geodesic dome. Though the cardboard-and-paper-clip structure isn't all that (unless you're the arts and crafts type), the inside houses a projectiondesign DLP unit with a custom infrared camera system that can turn simple hand gestures into virtual interstellar travel, 360-degree video teleconferencing and more. You'll find a pair of videos demonstrating the concept after the break, but try not to get too attached -- if you're anything like us, your poor heart can't handle another Courier axing.
Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data
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.
flOw wireless speaker concept flips jams based on your handling
She's but a concept at the moment, but David Boyce's flOw mockup certainly has legs. The five-speaker set can be arranged in a fanciful iPod docking station for in-home use, and on a whim, any of the speaker balls can be grabbed and taken elsewhere, all while the music follows via a touch of wireless magic. But that's hardly the kicker -- each ball has integrated gesture sensors and accelerometers, enabling the user to quiet the volume by turning it over or switch from "Smooth Operator" to "Master of Puppets" by simply jostling the speaker with an intense level of force. Talk about revolutionizing a played market sector. [Thanks, Paul]
N-trig demos advanced N-act multitouch gestures, coming to laptops and tablets later this year
N-trig has made a few multitouch advances in the past, and it's now trying to push things a bit further once again with its new so-called N-act hands-on gesture vocabulary, which promises to open up a new range of four-fingered, two-handed multitouch gestures. That includes new tricks like a three-finger side sweep gesture to scroll between windows, a three-fingered tap to display all open windows (just hold to cycle through them), and the ability to select something by making a rectangle with four fingers, to name but a few options. What's more, N-trig says that at least some OEMs have already committed to shipping laptops and tablets using the technology later this year (Windows 7 only), although it's unsurprisingly staying mum on any specific companies or products. Head on past the break for a quick demo video.
Minority Report UI designer John Underkoffler talks about the future of gestures
Unless you're an engineer who designs cutting-edge user interfaces, you've probably never heard the name John Underkoffler before ... but you've definitely seen his work. Remember the computer Tom Cruise uses by waving his hands around in Minority Report? He designed that. And it wasn't just faked together for the movie, Underkoffler had a working prototype at MIT before that, and now he's designed a version that you can actually purchase. Underkoffler now serves as the Chief Scientist at Oblong Industries, and we spoke with him recently in connection with the now-on-Blu-ray Minority Report, and he talked extensively about the future of computing, how video games are driving technology forward, what in the hell the game Tempest is all about, and why it's time for the mouse to die. Read on after the break for the full interview.
Synaptics extends multitouch Gesture Suite to Linux, Chrome OS included
Well, it had to happen at some point. After eons of watching Mac OS and Windows users swiping away nonchalantly on their touchpads, Linux laptop buyers can now also join the multitouch fray. Synaptics has announced official Gesture Suite support for a wide range of Linux-based OS flavors -- Fedora, Ubuntu, RedFlag, SuSE, and Xandros get name-dropped, while future support for Chrome OS is promised -- which will all benefit from its set of multi-fingered touch and swipe responses. The infamous pinch-to-zoom is quite naturally included in the Suite, which will come bundled with new installations of those operating systems. We're not seeing any mention of a downloadable update as yet, but we imagine that'll be corrected in due course, whether by the company itself or the resourceful Linux community. Full PR after the break.
iPad apps: defining experiences from the first wave
There are now over 1,348 approved apps for the iPad. That's on top of the 150,000 iPad-compatible iPhone programs already available in the App Store. When Apple's tablet PC launches, just hours from now, it will have a software library greater than that of any handheld in history -- not counting the occasional UMPC. That said, the vast majority of even those 1,348 iPad apps are not original. They were designed for the iPhone, a device with a comparatively pokey processor and a tiny screen, and most have just been tweaked slightly, upped in price and given an "HD" suffix -- as if that somehow justified the increased cost. Besides, we've seen the amazing potential programs have on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and webOS when given access to a touchscreen, always-on data connection, GPS, cloud storage and WiFi -- but where are the apps that truly define iPad? What will take advantage of its extra headroom, new UI paradigms and multitouch real estate? Caught between netbook and smartphone, what does the iPad do that the iPhone cannot? After spending hours digging through the web and new iPad section of the App Store, we believe we have a number of reasonably compelling answers. Update: Now includes Wormhole Remote, TweetDeck, SkyGrid, Touchgrind HD, GoToMeeting, SplitBrowser, iDisplay, Geometry Wars and Drawing Pad.
Tromso students put together the best interactive display wall we've seen yet (video)
Take everything you thought you knew about multitouch and throw it out. Okay, keep the Minority Report stuff, but throw everything else out. What we're looking at here is a 22 megapixel display, stitched together from the output of no less than 28 projectors (7,168 x 3,072 total resolution), which just happens to respond to touch-like input in a fashion even Tom Cruise would find fascinating. You don't have to actually touch the wall, floor-mounted cameras pick up your gestures in 2D space and a 30-node computer setup crunches all the computational and visual data to deliver some buttery smooth user interaction. For demo purposes, the makers of this system grabbed a 13.3 gigapixel image of Tromso and took it for a hand-controlled spin. See the mesmerizing show on video after the break.
German student shows off camera-based input on an iPhone
Using a camera as an input device is hardly a new idea -- even on a mobile device -- but most examples so far have been to enable functionality not possible on a touchscreen. As Master's student Daniel Bierwirth has shown in the video after the break, however, a phone on a camera can also be used as an alternative input method for features like scrolling or zooming, potentially allowing for easier interaction on devices with smaller screens. Bierwirth also takes the idea one step further, and sees the system eventually including a second camera that's worn by a person, which would be able to detect when your hands are near the phone and allow for a range of other gestures. Check out his full report at the link below.
Google Gesture Search puts your contacts just a stroke away
If you look under the hood, Google's been beefing up Android with support for gestures that developers can take advantage of, and the power and flexibility of that capability is now being demoed by none other than... well, Google, of course. Gesture Search -- which is currently being billed a Google Labs project -- lets you draw letters on the screen to reach contacts and other content on your phone, an especially nice shortcut for those who like to avoid the on-screen keyboard as much as possible. As it learns what you tend to search for, the quality of the searches improves, meaning you need to swipe less to get to frequently-accessed items. It needs Android 2.0 to do its thing, but if you've got a so-equipped phone, it's available now from the US-localized Market.
TAT Home: the gesture-powered 3D home screen your Android device has longed for
It's hard to believe this homegrown home screen actually runs as quickly as the video demo (posted up after the break) shows, but even if it's just 89.877 percent as fast, we have a good idea we'd be interested. TAT Home is a gesture-powered 3D home screen for Android, and it relies heavily on cascading windows and finger flicks in order to improve your navigational efficiency. Clueless as to what we're referring to? Jump past the break and mash play, and then surf on over to the source link to sign up for the preview program. [Thanks, Jesper]
Gesture Cube, the magical, intuitive, theoretical 3D interface (video)
You know how it is -- another day, another "magical" and "intuitive" input device -- not unlike Immersion's Cubtile, which we first saw about a year ago. This time around the culprit is Gesture Cube, the heathen spawn of Ident's "GestIC" electric field sensing technology (for 3D spatial movement tracking) and a couple German design studios. GestIC detects movements and distances in 3D space, enabling touch free gesture control. If this sounds good to you, wait until you see the YouTube demonstration, complete with all sorts of "magical" and "intuitive" interface ideas! It will really make you with you were a designer living in Germany, starring in YouTube videos for "magical" and "intuitive" design firms. We don't know how much of a hurry we are to see this implemented in our fave hardware, but who knows? Maybe we'll come around eventually -- after all, Grippity did wonders for our words-per-minute. Video after the break. %Gallery-84686%
Apple patent application two-fer: new gesture inputs, solar-powered iPods?
We know it's been tough with the dearth of Apple-related speculation as of late, but it looks like we now finally have a few more clues about what the company might be up to courtesy of a pair of recently published patent applications. The first of those is a new type of gesture-based input device, which would not only be able to detect swipes and other simple gestures, but things like brushing or scooping motions that take into account force and velocity (check out an example after the break). The other patent treads a bit of familiar territory for Apple, and describes a built-in solar power system for electronic devices -- such as an iPod, as illustrated above. That could apparently include solar cells covering the entire device, which could be configured to function even if they're partly obstructed by your hand. The system would also supposedly be able to detect if the battery is completely drained and rely solely on the solar cells to power up the device or, alternatively, switch the solar cells to a "second operational state" if it detects that the battery is charged -- if it ever actually exists, that is.
Rumor: Apple tablet said to be "iPhone on steroids"
If there's anything consistently consistent about the purported Apple tablet, it's that it's said to be, in essence, a larger iPhone. Expanding on this, Boy Genius Report cites its "close Apple contact" that claims the device is "an iPhone on steroids." Like its iPhone brethren, the tablet is said to sport an ARM processor, adding the caveat that the processor will be "incredibly fast." Also according to the report, the tablet will support multi-touch gestures that are said to be "out of control." Back in 2005, Apple acquired FingerWorks, a company that specialized in gesture-based computing. According to former Apple engineers, FingerWorks will have its footprint -- er, fingerprints -- on the purported tablet. The meat behind these potatoes is said to be the iPhone OS kernel. For this reason, there hasn't been an updated build of the iPhone OS out of fears that tablet-related references in the code would leak.
