Boffins to unveil gesture-controlled 3D TV A 3D TV with incorporated gesture-based controls is set to be unveiled in Germany next month. 3D_gesture_TV The iPoint: boasts a 3D display with gesture controls The futuristic iPoint 3D TV allows people to interact with the display through simple non-contact gestures. They don't have to wear those silly specs either, …
The viewer's hand is one point the TV needs to follow. To simulate direct manipulation, you need to simulate parallax be knowing where the viewers eyes are.
On the other hand gesture controlled vision means that images can be presented anywhere - walls, ceilings, curtains.
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I wrote about this back in October:
http://alex4d.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/multitouch-parallax-gives-you-3d-airtouching/
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Alex4D
While part of me thinks it looks like quite a cool advancement, the rest of me thinks it is just technology for the sake of technology. The over exaggerated hand movements and endless spinning just to replicate a couple of button presses on a remote.
This kind of work is an obvious necessity as a stepping stone to better things, but at the moment it is just there because they can do it rather than it being needed.
"For example, a housewife kneading pastry could turn down a pan of boiling potatoes or turn the lights up without leaving floury handprints all over the kitchen."
Why I am I reminded of the Futurama episode where the oven's main selling point was that it also provided the tired housewife with a footbath ...
I really want to see the latest incarnation of 3D TV's that do not require you to wear glasses. The last one I saw was several years ago and used a system similar to those old 3D photos where you turned it in one direction and it produced a 3D effect. Lenticular that was it.
It did not look too great back then. I wonder how the technologies have developed.
Except in my lovely cheap homebrew system you need a light-glove for any real range and a pair of polarising specs for the 3D. But the point is the functionality is there. And it's really impressive for, say, spinning Google Earth around or showing off if people come round. Maybe rotating static graphs, basic data manipulation.
Unfortunately, it's utterly useless for the 3D visualisation as shown- rotating is a PITA as there's nothing to get a hold of- and because of that there's no real way to make sure you're correctly anchored to the object. Then it doesn't spin at the right rate (though that's probably a limitation of my rig...) and anything more advanced (say, applying a force to a wheel in Pro/E Mechanism) needs either a plugin or some seriously complex gesture controlled command-macro system.
I can see this making it into some films, maybe an episode of Cribs or two. Maybe even that Star Trek Flat guy's next home. But as someone who's used something very similar, I've gotta say it's just a gadget without a load of practical applications. At least until plugins are created to support it.
When they can add in Force Feedback it'll be a far more useable system.
"For example, a housewife kneading pastry could turn down a pan of boiling potatoes or turn the lights up without leaving floury handprints all over the kitchen."
Except you have to waggle your hands rapidly in front of it to get it's attention, spraying said pastry all round the room anyway...
The interface technology for vocal and gestural control is all quite mature, what is missing is the machine intelligence to make the interface as intuitive as communicating with another human.
Mines the one with the oven gloves on a string through the sleeves.
So we are going to be standing in front of TVs flailing about like windmills?
Voice recognition and control would be more usable and useful but facing the same kind of problems doesn't work like this system won't work.
Having a fundamentally stupid idea is one thing, why companies spend money developing and demonstrating fundamentally stupid ideas is beyond me.
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