Some Windows 8 Laptops May Come With Built-In Kinect Sensors 140
An anonymous reader writes to point out reports that Asus is "working on a new laptop that will include Kinect gestures and will be compatible with Windows 8," and adds, "What does this mean for the consumer? Portable gestures in Windows 8!" Wired has an article based on the same report, which mentions also the prospect of devices incorporating alternative gesture-tracking software from SoftKinectic and others.
This could be amazing for the disabled (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Exciting (Score:5, Insightful)
What really has me excited about Windows 8 is Kinect. I think we're going to see a big transformation in the landscape of user interface in the next several years pushing us towards device-less interfaces.
Granted, this stuff isn't a replacement, it's a supplement. So don't think I'm preaching the death of touch or mouse and keyboard. The more options of well developed and useful interfaces we have the better.
I think device-less interface make sense for hand held computers, and less and less sense as you scale up the size of the computer.
Contrary to the scenes in CSI-Miami, flinging things around a huge table sensor is not particularly useful or efficient. Nor is reaching across your keyboard to move or select some object by dragging it across your 24 inch screen.
Even on a level of effort basis, waiving hands and fingers around in the air is pretty much a non-starter. (Not to be too George Jetson here...).
Then there is the on/off problem. Were you gesticulating while talking to your work-mate, or editing paragraphs on the page? Mice do nothing much unless you click.
The mouse still rules, and even the Wacom Bamboo line of touch/pen input devices are clumsy approximations.
Mice cost anywhere from 2 to 40 dollars, are amazingly precise, and by now, fully intuitive across all platforms.
If QWERTY can last from 1878 to the present, something far more elegant like the mouse is going to have a very long life.
Kinect will probably remain for games, and maybe music (performance, not listening), and the air guitar is going to become a REAL instrument.
Re:Exciting (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm excited too.
Something that might let me surf websites, go from links to links, control video playback, and have two hands free?
It's A Good Thing.
I've been making gestures for years! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been making gestures MS products for years. Call it feedback. Hell, I feel like making a gesture right now. The big change? Now we can be ignored 4 ways (keyboard, mouse, sound, gesture).
lessons not learnt (Score:5, Insightful)
Way to kill an excellent concept, MicroIdiots!
Voice control largely failed because nobody wanted to be caught dead talking to his computer and it just doesn't work at all in office environments.
Putting gesture control into notebooks must have been the winner of the "stupid idea of the year" contest, and for some reason it got mixed up with the actual product plan.
Seriously, on a train, in the airport lounge, on the airplane - that's when you really wish your notebook had gesture controls, right? And when you pitch your product to your business partners and give a crucial presentation, that's exactly the moment where you want to rely on more-or-less reliable gesture controls instead of a mouse or keyboard click or remote control.
Totally. The only place dumber than notebooks would've been the Zune.
Re:Can we get the systems with windows 7? (Score:1, Insightful)
I think Windows eight will suck for no other reason than it doesn't follow mod2. You only ever purchase the mod2 of windows. 98 sucked 98 2nd edition didn't me/2000 xp/vista/seven there is a shit version before a non-shit version historically speaking. Though some features look nice. Perhaps this new filesystem will be worth it's weight in diamonds.
Re:Can we get the systems with windows 7? (Score:2, Insightful)
Your mod2 theory falls flat because XP wasn't shit and Vista was (immensely so). 98 didn't suck either, at least not as bad as 95. The only thing that really sucked about ME was the removal of real mode DOS (yes, I know, there are mods available to bring this back, but that requires modifying system files and so IMO is only useful for hobby or bullshit usage).
One does have to admit that Vista is way better than any 9x-based OS simply because it has the stronger NT underpinnings that make it more secure and reliable. And that half of the major "complaints" were just because something changed that they didn't like (for example, for a while there it seemed that people actually liked it when RAM went completely unused because I heard tons of bitching about SuperFetch). Also, UAC is a good thing, and the main problems with it were actually not UAC failings per se (like the hassle of trying to copy files into a protected folder and getting IIRC three or four dialogs to click through - this was an Explorer issue, as it did not happen with Directory Opus). 7 is heaps better than Vista, however.
Re:Exciting (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you need the other hand for? Grabbing your partner's cock?
A strange inference from my post. Let me try do the same with your post.
You cannot understand what a 2nd hand could be used for, and your seemingly first thought is that it must be used for another man's cock.
There are several possibilities that are floating around in my head right now and let me take a whack at drawing inferences from your post as well.....
1) You are dealing with latent homosexual urges as evidenced by your apparent obsession with grabbing another man's cock.
2) You don't often have partners, because if you did, you would realize that there are 4 hands present and several orifices with the additional person. Cirque Du Soleil abilities aside, your own orifices are irrelevant. Only a single hand is required from either party to work the remote/mouse.
3) You are prepubescent and/or possessing of a small penis. Therefore it would never occur to you that an additional hand might be useful or desired.
4) You have at least one unusually large hand, and again, it would never occur to you that an additional hand would be needed.
Living in the post Atomic Age might cause one to conclude #4 to be correct, but statistically speaking, such mutations are very rare. #2 is certainly possible because this is Slashdot with the ever present stereotype that we are all in our mother's basements awaiting the delivery of Hot Pockets and Mountain Dew. #2 is also possible because the lack of logic and creativity with some people here never ceases to surprise me. #1 could be due to simple anonymous asshole syndrome, which is best explained by the Penny Arcade's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.
Hmmmmm.....
I will have to go with #3. You must have a tiny little penis. Do not lament your tiny penis my anonymous friend, because it is not the size that matters but how well you can convince somebody other than yourself to touch it.
These parting words I offer you as comfort [youtube.com].