AquaTop Immersive Display System: Get Your Hands Wet to Sink Some Files 52
mikejuk writes with an intriguing description of AquaTop, a (very) interactive display system developed at Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications Koike Laboratory, which uses a Kinect sensor, a projector, and a tub of cloudy water. Images are projected into the water, and as a user, "[Y]ou can move them around, resize them using the usual two-finger pinch, but you can also pick them up in cupped hands and transfer them somewhere else. The gesture I really liked was 'sink to delete' — yes, that's often how I feel about a file. Add some waterproof loudspeakers under the surface and allow the computer to run them at low frequency. The result is that you can now make the surface 'boil' in response to the sound. You can make fountains of water appear and project the right colors onto it to make it look like an explosion. In the demo game you throw energy bolts at squid that blow up if you hit them. You have to see the video to understand how putting your hands in cold water might be so much fun."
Metaphors (Score:2, Interesting)
This isn't really useful right now, but these kinds of technologies lead to a possible future where we aren't that much different than we are now and we interact with our virtual world a bit more naturally. Contrast that to a future where we adapt ourselves to more easily access the information in our virtual world.
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i agree, it seems almost silly right now, but at the same time it is incredibly clever in a way. It makes me happy to see this kind of innovation even though it may not immediately fill a role in my home its encouraging to see people thinking so differently from what we see every day in the tech industry
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Be a fun toy for younger kids.
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And for stoners.
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I don't know. Many is the time I have been relaxing in the tub (well, shower, but the idea is the same) when I wished I could access the Internet for some random piece of information. I wish I could just say "computer, what were the lyrics to 'Velcro Fly'?" or "what was the Seventh Amendment?" and I'd see that information in some sort of display (I imagined a free-floating hologram against the shower mist). I could see a device like this very useful for bathing.
I'm not sold on using it for anything producti
You know someone is thinking... (Score:2, Funny)
this would be great for pr0n.
Cylon Basestar (Score:2, Offtopic)
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That was my first thought.
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Same here. Life imitates art...
Vibrating In-Bath Feedback (Score:5, Funny)
Vibrating In-Bath Feedback is going to be popular with consenting adults I think.
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Get Your Hands Wet to Sink Some Files
Interactive fisting videos? :p
You sunk my dataship (Score:3)
You sunk my dataship
What a relief this should be (Score:2)
After all the hot water I get into maybe I can relax for a bit :)
Search and Rescue (Score:1)
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I assume he wants to gather balls of light with his fingers and fire them at people lost in the ocean.
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And when the balls of light hit those people, the water around them will begin to fizzle and light up with a strong red glow - making-it easier for the search & rescue vessels to locate them. :-)
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I'm wondering if this technology could be up-scaled to be useful for detecting persons lost at sea during the night
That shouldn't be too hard to achieve:
Step 1: Launch the MegaKinect into L5 orbit so that it may look down upon us all. We may need to harvest Mercury for materials and energy.
Step 2: line the shorelines with LEDs.
Step 3: line the ocean bottom with waterproofed loudspeakers.
Step 4: dump additives into the ocean water so it becomes appropriately murky (I believe we've already started on this on
Augmented Reality Sandbox (Score:5, Interesting)
Still prefer Augmented Reality Sandbox [ucdavis.edu].
Example on the tubes [youtube.com]
For short-term use only. (Score:2)
You have to see the video to understand how putting your hands in cold water might be so much fun
Does it come with a catheter?
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Yea I know OT.
switch to the old style classical interface. it is only the over feature stuffed web 2.0 version that is a pain to use.
if I login slashdot to me looks like it did 5 years ago. I know instantly when I haven't logged in as it take on the crappy web 2.0 interface that always hangs no matter what browser your using.
Finer Granularity in the Haptic Feedback (Score:1)
They should use tinier Long-Throw subwoofers so they can have the explosions be more lined up with the objects being destroyed, also a finer RGB LED array so that the explosions are more colorful.
And in case of virus / malfunction / Win8? (Score:1)
Just flush!
Sounds pretty therapeutic to me..
Monkeys (Score:2)
I believe this is why monkeys are mentioned in the video as possible users of this interface:
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=japan+monkey+hot+springs [google.com]
Three comments (Score:2)
Slow.
Inaccurate
Messy
Wow (Score:3)
I think I may be getting too old, but the quote from TFS seems like a foreign language to me. If it can't be done on a VT100 it shouldn't be done at all.
And, you rotten teenagers stay off my lawn!
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I think I may be getting too old, but the quote from TFS seems like a foreign language to me. If it can't be done on a VT100 it shouldn't be done at all.
Yep. I'm not buying into it either, there's no market for this. They said this would be useful for applications in Bath Houses. They said bath houses and hot-springs are a part of Japanese culture, but that's just a myth! Free-standing decaffeinated water does not exist. Coffee or Tea or Colas? Yes, of course... Bottled water? Perhaps, yes jugs even, but, "Baths?!" What fool would spill liquid on anything to that degree? Never in all my years in this basement have I heard such blatant rubbish.
I
Waterproof laptop? (Score:2)
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Yes, heaven forbid somebody invent a computer interface because it's interesting to investigate, and not because it's good for doing Microsoft Office.
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Did you honestly just say the equivalent of:
"Yes, heaven forbid somebody invent a driver interface because it's interesting to drive with, and not because it's good for keeping the car on the road."?
Exploring alternate interfaces is one thing. Claiming they are practical is quite another. An impractical interface is, pretty much by definition, worthless as an interface.
Sure, in terms of experimenting and looking at the problem from different angles, it's "interesting". But you always have to consider the
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Invent 100 cool new impractical interfaces, and one of them will transform real UIs forever. Each one is pretty silly, but such silliness is the only source of non-incremental change. And incremental change gets eventually gets stuck in a local maximum, so you need the other sort from time to time.
I just wish someone had realized the "ribbon" was one of those silly 99 ideas.
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Did they *say* it was practical? It doesn't sound practical, but it does sound interesting. "Interesting" UIs aren't generally good for day to day office tasks, but in addition to being springboards for other new ideas, they can also lead to more direct innovations in entertainment. For instance: I certainly wouldn't want a file manager based on DDR, but I do enjoy playing DDR, and I couldn't play it without a dance mat. That's a pretty unique interface.
Give them a break (Score:5, Funny)
It might be rubbish or plain stupid, but it's a pretty cool use of different technologies which might give birth to other cool stuff.
If B.Franklin discovery was published in /. he would get comments like: "oh, a glow in the dark kite string, what's the use for that? jewelry?", "Attach it to your penis and have (your last) sexual experience thanks to Tor", "Who the hell needs electricity when we have candles... get off my lawn", "OMG!!!!111! Hittler".
Pathetic.
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The difference between this and electricity is that there are hundreds of different uses for electricity. This tub is just a different implementation of already existing technology and has only one use. By the way, Franklin did not discover electricity; he was merely one of many.
...don't you? (Score:1)
> AquaTop Immersive Display
I hate that show. I wanna punch that french fry guy in the face.
Slashdotted.. (Score:2)
Not sure about multiplayer (Score:1)