A No-Touching 3D Computer Interface 123
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."
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
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[snip]
Fingerprint is not a secret. Repeat that until it sinks in. (They use it to catch criminals because we leave them all over the place, you know.)
No shit! [thedailywtf.com]
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I wouldn't concern myself with how this replaces the keyboard. In practical terms, it won't, any more than the mouse did. But a good controller scheme for 3D space is practical, and a gesture system is more or less necessary to make it all work.
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But a good controller scheme for 3D space is practical, and a gesture system is more or less necessary to make it all work.
No, it's not. It looks cool, but only until you're forced to wave around for more than 2 hours continuously. Not to mention the fact that now you're broadcasting to everyone in line of sight, as well as the UI.
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This is the kind of stuff it was designed to do
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Why am I reminded of a DOM with 3D SVG, SMIL and [Voice]/[Music]XML?
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On the other hand, remotes -- that might be a different story. Being a proud owner of an Azerothian ROFLcopter, it strikes me that the piloting interface - the mouse + keyboard controls -- are really rather good, and allow surprisingly good, easy control over complex 3D traversal. Could have something there. Although it's clear Blizzard is doing quite well in their current business, some of today's game developers could do a good job moon
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"you make a gesture that signals you're detaching from the controller".
Why is it when I read that I thought that the most appropriate gesture would be a middle finger salute?
obligatory (Score:1)
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Apply it to the RealDoll first, then when the space ship is crashing into the moon, the distant-touchers will be mashing as they croon...
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it doesn't have to be just your hands you know. if you install the device under your flooring, ceiling, and the walls, your whole house can be an interface.
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Nice interface, but how do you select stuff? I mean you can highlight whatever you want, but where's the push/click/activate?
If they added a bit of gesture recognition, that would be awesome.
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Nice interface, but how do you select stuff? I mean you can highlight whatever you want, but where's the push/click/activate?
you just slap or double slap your a** to click or double click :-)
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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."
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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.
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Your write about that; even lose womans don't want fingerprints on there interfaces.
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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.
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.
In Soviet Russia (Score:1)
Theremin plays YOU!
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Amazing.
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)
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At least no one will be throwing their new Wii controllers through their Plasma TVs anymore.
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.
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A webcam can't track with that kind of 3d accuracy. Especially not without sticking some kind of marker(s) on your hand. Also, it looks like this method for tracking could easily be expanded to a whole desk, wall or floor just by adding more sensors (they seem to be spaced about 1 foot apart in each direction)
Seamless multi-camera tracking is definitely not trivial.
Couple this with 3-D (Score:1)
Home-made VR, anyone?
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s/games/porn/g
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 ?
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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.
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I had to google that up, to understand that they both are tequilas.
Thank you, but I'm somehow immune to ever having a memory loss, or vomiting, from alcohol. Believe me. I've tried it.
I'm also immune to cannabis. Smoked a large pure joint (no tobacco, because I'm allergic to it) on my first an last time, and what changed was exactly... *nothing*.
Yes, I know... It's a gift, but also a curse.
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Thank you, but I'm somehow immune to ever having a memory loss, or vomiting, from alcohol. Believe me. I've tried it
No vomiting? I've had cases where vomiting was the only thing preventing me from getting alcohol poisoning. So did you end up in the hospital, or were you just not trying hard enough? ;)
Anyway, while I can believe you wouldn't suffer from memory loss, I assure you that you are not immune to the brain-cell-killing effects of alcohol. It's not targeted or anything, so it may take a long while
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No. Well. To me it becomes impossible to pour a glass into my mouth, long before I feel a urge to vomit. And it two ways: First the psychological one: Somehow my brain starts to block thoughts about it. And then the motor-related one. ^^
You are right about the brain-cell-killing one. But, well, I'm not too worried, because after my tries, I'm just not into drinking much anymore. 3 well done Mojitos, and I'm happy. 4, and the curve of happiness falls again. Additionally, stupidity is bliss for me. I always c
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I had to google that up, to understand that they both are tequilas.
Thank you, but I'm somehow immune to ever having a memory loss, or vomiting, from alcohol. Believe me. I've tried it.
If you had to look those two up; you haven't tried hard enough.
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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Never become a painter, or a plasterer, or any job that involves actual manual labor. Also, don't work out. God forbid you should get tired.
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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.
Was done in the 90s (Score:1)
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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.
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Michael (on jail pay phone): ... and tell Gob I've got a nice hard cot with his name on it.
Lucille: You'd do that to your own brother?
Michael: I said *cot*.
Flobots! (Score:1)
No touching it!
No touching it!
I can use my comp without touching it-
No touching it!
No touching it!
Look at me, look at me, hands in the air like its good to be alive
And I'm a dumb script kiddie, exploiting flaws in your security!
I can use you as another spambot,
I can make you my new zombie!
All of this with a flick of my wrist in the airspace over my PC!
Holy Laziness Batman (Score:1)
From the comments above, none of the posers have had to swing a framing hammer for 8 hours a day for six days at a time.
Not using it because your arm might get tired? Talk about lazy.
Though I do like the idea of having the mouse clicker on the thumb and forefinger as suggested by one of the other posters.
Already Been Done... (Score:2)
Maniacs, rejoice ! (Score:1)
Yeah, I guess I'm weird...
Sub-etha radio! (Score:2)
The master said it first:
Do It Yourself (Score:1)
I'm at work so I can't view the video, but I found something that might be similar that you can do yourself (if you have soldering/wiring/programming experience)
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-3D-Controller/ [instructables.com]
Pretty cool stuff.
Theremin??? (Score:1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin [wikipedia.org]
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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
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You mean our new-fangled devices really *are* gonna make those spooky 50's sci-fi sounds after all?
I like buttons (Score:1)
Mistagged (Score:2)
Quit complaing (Score:1)
3D Tracking for VR (Score:2)
I was looking at this as a replacement for WAY more expensive systems like OptiTrack [naturalpoint.com] or the Flock of Birds. It's a bit limited in that it does not seem to let you "point" at a certain things...the video looked like it created a "bump" roughly where your hand is.
I wonder if you could refine such a system using electrostatic sensors alone to resolve individual fingers and hand orientation.
With some refinement and augmentation from a single camera, it could turn into a gesture recognition system for VR or a v
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Is anybody out there working on FoSS mocap? I'm kind of surprised nobody has done it with markers yet, which seems relatively easy on the scale of some things which have been done. But then maybe there's just still so much money in it that it only makes sense to sell the software. The PS2 EyeToy showed what was possible with one mediocre camera, and processing power has blossomed since...
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Hey, I never said anything about FoSS :) But do check out ARToolkit [washington.edu] (free as in beer).
Whoa, slow down there... (Score:2)
Isn't this just a theramin with a third axis?
Handflapping (Score:2)
Feedback is why we're good with our hands. Waving them in the air without touching something for feedback denies us our monkey skills in moving our hands to control something. Like a theremin, which doesn't rock, because it's handflapping, not manipulating something.
I don't see what's such a big deal to touch something. How about a wireless ball that pulls apart into two hemispheres connected to a toothpick-thin telescoping segmented rod (like a car radio antenna) by a 1mm ball joint at the center of each c
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I've seen a lot of people complaining about theremins and proving they have entirely missed the point. The instrument is played by audio feedback. You want to play a theremin like you play a guitar, but it's not that kind of instrument. Incidentally, let me know how retuning your guitar in a microsecond works out for you.
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I retune my guitar in a microsecond by bending the strings, which I feel with my hands as I play them.
That's why physical instruments are different from gestural ones: that physical feedback connects lots of our body to the instrument, not just our ears and our motor cortex. Humans have a lot of body language to use.
Just a variation of technology aready discovered (Score:1)
A UI made for humans (Score:1)
It seems to me that the history of UI development, from command line to primitive windowing systems, to modern windowing UIs (with a side trip thru Jurassic Park's 3d "Unix" UI), and now 3D, has been all about making computers present a view of the world that is more like what we experience natively. That is, a 3D environment that we can move around in and manipulate, with intuitive results.
I think ultimately, 3D immersive UIs are where we're going. OTOH, the problem with the infant implementations of