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Obscura Digital Demos "Minority Report"-Like Display
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Aug 05, 2008 12:54 PM
from the grabbing-holograms dept.
from the grabbing-holograms dept.
Barence and other readers sent along word of a demonstration by Obscura Digital of a new technology it's dubbed a multi-touch hologram — reminiscent of the display in Minority Report. The demonstration shows a man interacting with holographic images projected before him, moving them around and resizing them. It's only sort of like the Minority Report display, which used hand movements to control elements on a screen. Earlier, Obscura had demoed another take on the Spielbergian technology, a multi-touch wall.
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ok, I want one (Score:2)
now please. That's one of the best displays that I've ever seen in any sci-fi movie. Even if it was just special effects, it had me drooling. That and the electric citroen DS from gattaca.
Re:ok, I want one (Score:5, Insightful)
And then you'll get sick of having arms that feel like wood. Mouse-elbow would be nothing compared to this thing.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
good point! I've recently started riding a recumbent bicycle and that's a pretty good description of what's happening to my feet. It took me a while to make the link, apparently suspending your limbs for longer periods in a horizontal position is *not* a good idea.
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And then you'll get sick of having arms that feel like wood. Mouse-elbow would be nothing compared to this thing.
Exercise never hurt anyone.
In fact... I think most of Slashdot could use a bit more.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Jim Fixx [wikipedia.org]
Dennis Leary:
Jogged fifteen miles a day. Did a jogging book. Did a jogging video. Dropped out of a heart attack when? When he was fucking jogging, that's when! What do you wanna bet it was two smokers who found the body the next morning and went, "Hey! That's Jim Fixx, isn't it? Wow, what a fucking tragedy."
Re: (Score:2)
Not really. A mouse and keyboard, the only weight you have to keep suspended is your hand. And even then, only barely so. Try holding your arms out without any weight in them for long periods of time. More than 10 minutes, even if you move them around. Just keep them up in the working position for this thing.
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Cool, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Somehow, doesn't seem as efficient as alt-tabbing.
Re:Cool, but... (Score:5, Funny)
alt-tabbing
My brain initially interpreted that as "air-tabbing" and I pictured legions of nerds engaged in some kind of fierce air-keyboarding competition.
Parent
One step closer to my holographic dream (Score:2)
Someday, when holograms are commonplace, I will drive down the street, and instead of seeing my car, you will see a giant snake breathing fire on everything around me.
I applaud every bit of research and technology advancements that bring me closer to that future.
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Someday, when holograms are commonplace, I will drive down the street, and instead of seeing my car, you will see a giant snake breathing fire on everything around me.
A snake? Pfft, give me my damn holographic shark that bites by-passers. You've got 7 years.
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"You're paying too much for car insurance".
Re:One step closer to my holographic dream (Score:5, Funny)
But not in our dreams. No sir.
Parent
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+1 Futurama Reference
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Someday, when holograms are commonplace, I will drive down the street, and instead of seeing my car, you will see a giant snake breathing fire on everything around me.
How likely is that? Once we have holographic projectors for cars, all the kids are going to default to screaming, angry penises. "Hey, that dick just cut me off!"
Innovative (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but can we lay it down on say, a table? [microsoft.com]
Re:Innovative (Score:5, Insightful)
You're starting to show your age... or just being an ass, the Surface is a good idea with our current technology, and will remain for quite a few years yet even if holographic stuff became popular/accessible because it doesnt interfere (think about schools and offices).
But, this is entirely different from the Surface, and I don't really mean just tech-wise, think about "there is no spoon", its almost a spiritual tool, the (possible) freedom is almost limitless in what you can do, almost as good as having your brain directly linked into the computer.
Having said that and probably some already stopped reading, depending on how (or when) portable it is, this could be a major problem, especially in the beginning with people walking around terrorizing young and/or old people, or causing traffic accidents etc "I swear Officer, there was a car there!".
There could also be problems with subliminal things, although it could be argued that its possible (and in some cases does happen) with current technology, it would be much easier and far less noticeable to embed slight alterations, and hidden messages into the the hologram/projection, I'm thinking about this in the context of later on when there might be people who have it on permanently (think of Strange Days [imdb.com]).
However, as much as I am fond of Trains, Gas Guzlers, CRT's and Physical arts, I for one welcome our new holographic overlords.
Parent
This could double (Score:4, Funny)
A few technical steps away from "Minority Report" (Score:4, Funny)
The researchers did state that their tech would need to be scaled up before it could work with straight actors.
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The Problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with this is that your arm gets tired! The Nintendo Powerglove [youtube.com] from the 80's had this problem. A more natural interface would occasionally let you use your hands for rapid-fire intensive input or precision adjustments, but would follow your eyes and verbal instructions.
Powerglove != Wii (Score:5, Insightful)
Using the Powerglove is not like using a Wii. Try making a fist and waving it back and forth and up and down in front of you with the back of your hand level. Try this for hours. Eventually, you wind up trying to rest your elbow on something. With the Wii, you usually make specific gestures, after which you are free to go back to a more restful position. It's more like holding a sword/racquet/frying pan. The Powerglove is more like using a giant-sized air-joystick. There is no chance for resting. The Wii is much more "natural."
If the interface in the article allows you to make momentary gestures, then it won't be tiring. If your hands are way out in front of you for hours, it will be a drag.
Parent
Oh come ON! (Score:2)
You don't resize with your eyeballs, NOW. You're looking over someone's shoulder saying "okay, make it just a bit bigger. Okay just a smidge too big. Okay split the difference." Then you get frustrated and "grab the mouse" and do it yourself, which is when you'd do the hand gesture thing.
Meh.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Well first of all, it's shot from one angle, saw another movie like this where some random blogger (also the case here it seems) thinks its "holographic" when it is in fact a projector shooting on clear plastic.
Also it looks to me that he interacts with the system through sensors in each hand, clicking them when he wants to "grab" something - and they are poorly calibrated, quite a lot of the time the system clearly isn't responding the way he wants it to.
Re: (Score:2)
And the hand positions just seem unnatural. He has his hands curled around something the entire time. Granted, some sort of pointing device isn't bad, and real buttons can be nice in that the system really knows when you pushed it and doesn
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Well not exactly, you are bound to end up with a better result than the guy in the movie.
photo collection app... (Score:3, Insightful)
Boring.
Hasn't anyone figured out a more interesting application of this "multi-touch" input form?
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Boring. Hasn't anyone figured out a more interesting application of this "multi-touch" input form?
Multi-touch.. interesting... mmmh.. is it okay if it involves the Olsen twins? :-S
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If moving, rotating, and resizing photos is your primary responsibility this technology may be useful. It is still just an extension of "touch" interfaces. I love new technology but I'd take a numerical keypad any day over a touch screen to enter my PIN at an ATM; old, reliable tech is more dependable in real-world applications than new, interesting tech.
Um, (Score:2)
So how exactly does this work? I'd hate to find out that it is just a hyped camera trick that looks awful from any other angle.
Fake? (Score:4, Informative)
From the blog comments [blogspot.com]:
This guy is not controlling anything with his hands. It's a pre-recorded sequence and he is "hand-syncing". Look closely.
Still, I'd like to know what technology they used to create the holograms... *IF* indeed they're real.
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Get Off My Lawn! (Score:2, Interesting)
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I mean, sure, it makes posting to Slashdot kinda tricky, but [dogt-82-4yh2ht08y]0h]ef[p {A;
Obligatory... (Score:2)
Imagine the ungodly interactive porn!
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ok.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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For christ's sake, learn to f-ing swear, gawdammit.
More than that. (Score:2)
More than that, have you noticed that the primary organizational concept used for all of these "advanced" systems is the pile?
If all I wanted to do was move things from one pile to another I'd ditch the computer and go back to the piles of paper on my desk.
Johnny (Score:4, Interesting)
All this is a lot like what Johnny [cmu.edu] did with the Wii-mote. He effectively turned the Wii (aka OLD technology by this point) into a tracker so he could manipulate items. He even used a screen to make images appear 3-D. In fact, his system is a lot more like Minority Report because, iirc, Cruise was touching a kind of screen, moving pictures and images across it, not hanging in mid-air.
Minority Report (Score:2, Redundant)
This had me confused for a while, since I haven't seen the Tom Cruise movie. I can recall no such thing from the 1949 short story by Theodore Sturgeon [wikipedia.org], or from the 1959 PKD short story [wikipedia.org].
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s/mouse/hamster (Score:4, Interesting)
Minority Report sucked. The sensitivity on that wall-sized display was set to the level where it required a Shatneresque facial tick to get anything to happen at all. Cruise was doing Swan Lake just to accomplish a simple fade. Just what we all need: a 10,000 pixel wide display with a 20dpi gesture camera.
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Hmm....
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Indeed. I've seen holograms in tech museums, but they're only viewable from one angle. And worse, they're always BEHIND the glass with the imprinted interference patterns.
I've yet to see a hologram that can be displayed in any point in space (and could be viewed from nearly all angles) with just one or two projectors. THAT would merit a Nobel Prize.
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