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Scientific Thoughts

The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility - Albert Einstein

Friday, April 15, 2005

In the futuristic movie Minority Report, the lead character (portrayed by Tom Cruise) manipulates on-screen images by using a gloved hand. A video-camera picks up the 3D hand-motions, and the computer translates the motions into actions on the display. Now researchers from the defence company Raytheon have come up with a prototype that does exactly that. They have even employed John Underkoffler, the researcher who proposed the interface to the makers of the film!

Talk to the hand! (Courtesy: Raytheon)
Current user interfaces (keyboard, mouse) work in a 2D world, which limits their applications. Even supposedly 3D interfaces (trackballs, game-controllers) are not truly 3D, as you need more than one control for accurate 3D navigation. The system in Raytheon allows the user to wear a a pair of reflective gloves and manipulate images projected on a panoramic screen. A camera takes live pictures, and the computer processes the images to translate into motion on the screen.
Such technology can be used to sort through large volumes of data (for example, satellite imagery, intelligence data), and also might help doctors to perform virtual surgery. It also has huge potential in gaming and virtual reality-based applications.

Hands-On Interface

4/15/2005   7 comments Post a Comment

7 Comments:

At April 17, 2005 1:53 PM, Blogger Sray said...
Soon we will be wirelessly hooked up with everything, and will just have to 'think', and the work is done :-). Will that be the pinnacle of evolution? I dont know... Asimov's "Foundation Series" comes to mind....
 
At April 17, 2005 3:06 PM, Blogger wise donkey said...
interesting sray..

but just "think" pinnacle of evolution , no i dont think..
(no idea on Asimov)
 
At April 17, 2005 3:30 PM, Blogger LEMNA said...
Emm,I heard about something like this before,'n someday I knew somebody whom was workin' on these fields...It is really nice...
 
At April 17, 2005 4:49 PM, Blogger Sray said...
WD: just imagine that your brain is fitted with a device, that communicates with the rest of the world. It is like a wireless computer, directly interfaced with you brain. Such things will happen in the future... but hacking will take on a new meaning then!
 
At April 17, 2005 4:50 PM, Blogger Sray said...
Dear Dear Lemna, people all over the world are working on such things. It is the hottest thing right now! And there are so many applications, the only limit is your imagination :-).
 
At April 22, 2005 6:57 AM, Blogger Wayne Smallman said...
There's one obvious problem with the device used in the Minority Report, and it became obvious to me the first moment I saw the trailer for the film: after about five minutes of sustained use, you'd end up with horrendous back, arm and neck ache.

Looks good, but such a device clearly never passed through the qualified hands of an ergonomist.

Use such a thing for too long, and you're sure to pass through the qualified hands of a physiotherapist...
 
At April 23, 2005 11:49 AM, Blogger Sray said...
I think the next better thing is already on the horizon.. that is using the brain dirctly to move objects or do thnigs. One would have an interface with the brain, that will send signals to the appliances, and things will get done :-D. No need of a physiotherapist there! Psychiatrists, perhaps :-).
 

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