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A No-Touching 3D Computer Interface
Posted by
timothy
on Tue Apr 28, 2009 08:45 AM
from the in-development dept.
from the in-development dept.
Justin Schunick points out a video demonstration of a 3D input system which senses the user's hand position, but without requiring the user to touch a controller or wear a trackable position indicator. From the provided description: "Utilizing the theory of electrostatics, we have designed a low-cost human-computer interface device that has the ability to track the position of a user's hand in three dimensions. Physical contact is not required and the user does not need to hold a controller or attach markers to their body. To control the device, the user simply waves their hand above it in the air."
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Submission: 3D Computer Interface by Anonymous Coward
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a 2d drawing application for a 3d interface? (Score:2, Insightful)
Why? a little counter-intuitive, my tablet can do that much better.
I think it's an awesome idea, but poorly executed examples.
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I think it's an awesome idea, but poorly executed examples.
So what does it do when my hands get tired? Crash my spaceship into the nearest moon?
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So what does it do when my hands get tired? Crash my spaceship into the nearest moon?
Can't RTFA at work, but the obvious answer is "you make a gesture that signals you're detaching from the controller".
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Can't RTFA at work, but the obvious answer is "you make a gesture that signals you're detaching from the controller".
A full-blown sign language then? How is that better than a keyboard again?
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Ah, I see now. If you're constantly and randomly change your trajectory, the chances of any projectile actually hitting you is absymal.
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Re:a 3d I/O application for 1d data entry (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I think a full-blown sign-language would be great, especially for use with cell phone cameras. There are a few obvious benefits, and some not-so-obvious ones:
(1) people learn international sign language, and it assists in international communication.
(2) The speed of data entry would be increased greatly.
(3) It seems to me probable that there would be decreased cost and possibly (if it was done by a designed/dedicated chip) decreased battery usage by using sign lanugage instead of other means
(4) L
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(1) people learn international sign language, and it assists in international communication.
I'm a Hungarian, living in the UK, posting on an American website. Don't tell me about international communication.
(2) The speed of data entry would be increased greatly.
Compared to a touchscreen, maybe. Assuming of course the software can translate SL into your native language. Compared to a keyboard, this is a joke. Try coding C in sign language, and report back when they let you out from the mental institute.
(3) It seems to me probable that there would be decreased cost and possibly (if it was done by a designed/dedicated chip) decreased battery usage by using sign lanugage instead of other means
You mean a high quality (especially considering #4) camera and a custom-designed and -manufactured chip or recognition software with the associated CPU
I'm so sorry... (Score:5, Funny)
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"...the user simply waves their hand above it in the air..." These are not the droids you're looking for.
Oh great. So now the Oracle training will include clairvoyance, mind control and lightsaber modules?
Re:I'm so sorry... (Score:4, Funny)
"Is Access better?"
"No...no...no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."
Parent
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"Is Access better?"
"No...no...no. Quicker, easier, more seductive."
Oh, they already started the "strike me with all your anger" part.
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They're shooting holes in my spreadsheet!
"I've lost $R$2!!!"
Re:I'm so sorry... (Score:4, Funny)
A no-touching 3D... interface
Yeah, it seems like every girl I know has one of those.
Parent
If my experience with a Theremin means anything... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If my experience with a Theremin means anything (Score:4, Interesting)
Just needed to turn down the sensitivity a little... like people who put their mouse on super slow tracking vs. those who prefer a quick twitch approach. Personally I'd like a trackpad replacement with this interface, I don't want to have to move my whole arm around. Make it plenty sensitive or rather make the sensor's grid scaled appropriately for the size of the input.
Parent
Re:!Theremin (Score:3, Interesting)
Theramins suk.
Make this a finger gesture interface. Your wrist is resting, and your fingers can do stuff fairly repeatable.
(Reboot from BSOD = That Gesture.)
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Oh, great (Score:2)
5ft x 5ft x 5ft mouse pad? (Score:4, Insightful)
Interesting from a tech, nerd perspective I suppose. However, a web cam and a computer vision gesture control app can produce the same effect much more efficiently.
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But hey... it's cheap and you could use it for cybersex ;) Never underestimate the power of porn!
Re: pron! (Score:2)
What nasty action = rightclick?
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As with all things, this proof of concept isn't practical but it could lead to better devices when miniaturized. Just think of an iPhone but you don't have to smudge the screen. Or a Wii hooked up to your TV, but you don't need a nunchuck.
Touch interface fitness required (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Touch interface fitness required (Score:5, Interesting)
Your arms are going to get tired very quickly using this interface...
Of course not, now you don't have to hold that heavy 5 gram light pen. No more gorilla arm syndrome !
This guy is a genius !
Um, wait.
Do the people who keep on re-inventing those interfaces actually ever ponder why each previous instance failed ?
Parent
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Because the tech is damn cool! Sure it won't replace your mouse, but there are still scenarios where it's useful too.
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This kind of interface isn't very practical for general use computing -- it isn't going to replace your mouse.
But it can be useful for several special applications were a keyboard and mouse is impractical or the use is short enough that arms getting tired isn't an issue.
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So if they existed in reality, the Jedi would look more like Jabba the Hut?
There are things, that you just can't unthink...
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So if they existed in reality, the Jedi would look more like Jabba the Hut?
There are things, that you just can't unthink...
Hello, person with a thought or memory they wish they could erase. Let me introduce you to my friends, Jose Cuervo and Don Julio. They can help you out.
Back to the Future (Score:2)
they get an "F" on internet tech (Score:2)
"Physical contact is not required and the user does not need to hold a controller or attach markers to their body."
SOMEONE has forgotten the fact that porn has been the source and promoter of about every successful web tech to date.
infuriatingly still (Score:5, Funny)
From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.
A lot of these technologyies. (Score:3, Interesting)
A lot of these technologies are really waiting more for computing power to increase to a level where it can support it comfortable, more then new ideas on how to get it to work.
We know how to take 2 camera and generate a 3d model of what the cameras see. The problem is processing speed.
So the reinvented the Theremin? (Score:3, Insightful)
Except with electrostatics instead of heterodyning?
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In this case, it's still measuring capacitance in some form, though with several sensor plates to provide more axes. But the result - however it influences the circuit - is generated as a stream of data over USB. It might even use a bunch of oscillators jus
Carpal tunnel or muscle strain (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know about everyone else, but holding my hands anywhere in free space takes quite a bit of energy unless they are hanging at my sides. The reason the keyboard and mouse or other touch surfaces work well is because they allow a person to rest their limbs in an unnatural position.
So I am not sure about anything that doesn't allow a person to rest... it'd be like using a whiteboard all day long, and that is quite tiring!
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Yeah. Somebody forgot to add the "gorillahands" tag.
-- It's like a gorilla arm with jazz hands. (TM)
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Not terribly applicable, since all said professions use large arbitrary motions, but I do feel for the human statues. I think they'd be in the same boat as the users of said system.
yumm (Score:3, Insightful)
If I were using this on a desktop, I wouldn't mind wearing a small button on my hand to allow me to click easier (squeezing your thumb and index finger is less effort than moving your whole arm forward) and maybe have a small brace to rest my wrist on, one that gimbals around, to save my arm from being tired.
If it could be made simpler and integrated with mobile devices I could see it begin a winner though. Tiny mice and track pads are horrible, Touch screens have always been my prefered mobile input device and one that lets me use the computer with my fingers without smudging the screen would make me happy :D
Do I sense a Theramin app for the iPhone 5G?
No touching (Score:4, Funny)
"No touching!"
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> Who else read this headline and immediately thought of Arrested Development?
"What have we always said is the most important thing?"
"Umm... breakfast?"
"Family!"
and
"Like I've always said, there's money in the banana stand."
"Well, not any more. I burned it down."
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They don't allow you to have bees in here.
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*raises hand*
We're not the only ones, either:
from the in-development dept.
Already Been Done... (Score:2)
Sub-etha radio! (Score:2)
The master said it first:
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Mod Up!
Make it a hybrid interface.
Big touchpad where the mouse is now, plus the ability to recognize gestures above it.
Monitors are for looking at.
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s/games/porn/g
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First I want to see what is actually under the cloth, second I want to know if he is just using a multiple pickup therimin, one for each axis.
I balked at the cloth as well, but stuck out the video to the last quarter, where they pulled it back and gave a short tour of the guts of the system.
Looks pretty simple. I don't think any new discoveries have been made, but rather the device is a clever bit of engineering using known electrical properties. Applied and scaled correctly, it holds some neat possibili