In college in 2001, I took a class called HCI. Human Computer Interface. It was all about how humans interact with computers. For our final project we created software for an early phase Wacom tablet, which is actually very similar (basic functionality-wise) to what Apple is about to mass produce with the iPad.
Now, in 2010, we are beginning to see the next phase in HCI. Oblong Industries, whose founders came up with the idea for the technology depicted in the move Minority Report, have actually made that technology a reality as explained in the NYTimes this week.
Basically, you wear some gloves with little dots on your fingertips to help the computer’s cameras recognize the movement of your hands and fingers. I don’t think the gloves are mandatory, but they are worth it for a smooth experience. From there, you can move your hands in many different directions, shapes, finger placements, and turns to control all sorts of different things on the computer screen. Plus, they have incorporated the screen to be anything they could project it onto (a wall, table, etc), and all screens to interact with each other.
What you end up with is a complete user immersion into the screens where you have free control of the computer with just your hands (no mouse, cords, wireless, etc.). Forget the touch-screen or wireless Wii remote. Now, it’s just your hands and a wall.
I first saw these guys when I visited their warehouse back around early 2007. It was incredibly cool to see what they had basically created back then. In a quick tutorial, they showed us a basic piece of software for interacting with flight patterns as if we were air traffic control, which I found fascinating. The purpose of our initial discussion was to see if their technology could ever be used within our trading software. I think both sides agree that it can and someday it would be cool to bring it to reality.
Well, since then they have continued to improve and optimize the software. They officially came out of stealth mode in late 2008, but are really had their public “coming out” at the TED conference last week. The video from TED is not up yet, but here is a video created by Oblong of something similar to their TED demonstration. My favorite part is when he grabs a character out of a movie, places him on the table and he continues to move.
radically condensed demonstration of oblong's g-speak spatial operating environment
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