Thursday, June 23, 2011

How would you like it?

 

Imagine if you will, a transformation of computer power and interfaces that would allow real virtualization in space transmitted by your hands, and body movements, similar to what the Wii or Kinect do with gaming.

Here is a technology looking for an application, perhaps in neurosurgery or operating in a closed body space, virtualized and harmonized with MRI and/or PET scans.

Oblong’s radically condensed G spatial operating environment. Yes Doctor, you too can be like Tom Cruise in the “Minority Report”. Try this on full  screen with HD

Hollywood imitates life. And sometimes life imitates Hollywood.

John Underkoffler, who led the team that came up with the interface that Tom Cruise’s character used in the 2002 movie “Minority Report,” co-founded a company, Oblong Industries, to make the gesture-activated interface a reality.

Using special gloves, Mr. Underkoffler demonstrated the interface — called the g-speak Spatial Operating Environment at the annual TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., a series of lectures by experts across a variety of technologies.

He pushed, pulled and twisted vast troves of photos and forms that were on a screen in front of him, . He zoomed in, zoomed out and rotated the images using six degrees of control. In one part of the demonstration, he reached into a series of movies, plucked out a single character from each and placed them onto a “table” together where they continued to move.

In this conception of computing, the input and the output occupy the same space — unlike a conventional computer, in which the mouse and computer keyboard are separate from the screen, where the changes appear.

Gesture-based interfaces are among the most significant advances in computer interface design since the mid-1980s, and they are part of a trend of accelerating advances in how humans interact with computers.

Oblong, arriving here will see consumer oriented applications in some new gaming consoles by Microsoft.  It has been an evolving process since 1994 at the MIT Media Labs.

Gosh, I wish I was just entering medical school.

1 comment:

H. M. Stuart said...

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