I happened to stumble across some really cool technology last month. I was at the PC Magazine 25th anniversary party (yes it was as exciting as it sounds) and I was staring at the coffee table in front of me, which had a scene from a beach shore being projected onto it from above. The killer thing was, if you touched the water, ripples were sent out as if it were really there. Smack the table and the whole water surface becomes visibly distorted, as if it were real. The technology had the whole place in awe. Everyone was poking the coffee table and dragging their hands across the surface in order to see how it would affect the projected image of water.
The technology behind the demonstration comes from a Cologne, Germany company called Vertigo Systems. The company has found a way to mount a camera on a projector that is capable of defining a space and (through the help of some great software and really fast computer processors) can alter a projected image in real time, based on whatever the camera sees you doing.
Everybody is jumping into this technology in some form or another. While Vertigo is doing it with projectors, Microsoft Corp. is out flogging it's Surface device. During his keynote speech at CES, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates showed off how some stores are already using the device. One very proud snowboard shop was used as a specific example. Using Surface, people can pick a virtual snowboard, apply virtual decals and even hand draw a design on the board before they buy it. Once they see how everything looks, they confirm their purchase and the design is sent to manufacturing. Another use for the Surface is believed to be in restaurants, where they could replace traditional wait staff. Instead of looking a menu, everything the shop has to offer appears on the screen in front of you. Just scroll through the selections, pick what you want and hit go. The food is brought right to you. When it's time to pay, just drop a credit card on the surface. The table reads the micro-chip embedded in the card and charges your account.
Other companies are jumping in on this too, with some even trying to replace the walls of office cubicles with touch screen panels that allow people to post virtual sticky notes, conduct video conference calls and interact with staff and customers in ways that have traditionally been impossible to do. Then there are other companies such as Heliodisplay that are doing things like this.
Source: http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/bitsandbytes/archive/2008/01/22/see-it-touch-it-use-it.aspx It all seems really far fetched and "out there". But, when you add up all of the technology available, it won't take very long before we live in a "Minority Report" world.
Cynergy Labs is working on some cool technology! Using the concepts that Johnny Chung Lee introduced as a building block. This system uses the Wiimote as a camera looking at the users fingers to determine what the user wants to do. I can see this technology being built into laptops and other computer system in the near future to be used at an additional input device.
“Maestro brings together Microsoft WPF, third party community libraries and custom built IR gloves to demonstrate next generation human to computer interfaces.”
Tariffs
-
[image: [later] I don't get why our pizza slices have such terrible
reviews; the geotextile-infused sauce gives the toppings incredible slope
stability!]
CSS Wish List 2025
-
Back in 2023, I belatedly jumped on the bandwagon of people posting their
CSS wish lists for the coming year. This year I’m doing all that again,
less bel...
-
Airlines, banks, casinos, package deliveries, and emergency services around
the world are recovering today from what could be "the largest tech outage
in h...
Twitter vs. Mastodon
-
Some context on Mastodon, after a couple weeks of exploring it – I’m sure
I’m missing a lot, but this is my understanding of the tech, so far. I’ve
been an...
Chest of Drawers
-
This chest of drawers is to replace the cheap stand (with no storage) that
was previously holding up our parrot's travel cage. She only lives with us
a few...
Recall available worldwide
-
Today we’re thrilled to announce that Recall is available worldwide. As
mentioned previously, we always intended Recall to be released worldwide
but due ...
Microsoft Student 2 Business!!
-
*Realize your dreams with the Student to Business Program. *
Are you a graduating student looking for formative work experience in the
IT field? Are ...
