http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5519020&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
As soon as crazy hand-based interfaces are mentioned, everybody’s mind goes to Minority Report — and for a reason: Spielberg made a point of having technology in the movie that was a logical evolution from what we’ve got today. Except for the psychic triplets or whatever, though I hear AMD is working on something like that. So we shouldn’t be surprised as current technology begins to catch up with sci-fi.
This particular crazy-ass interface, used by Samsung in promotions for the Jet, is certainly cool, but is more a “look and feel” of what will be coming out in years to come than an actual functioning interface. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
The trouble with this interface idea is this: the projector is stationary, so the holograms will depend on you being in the right place — same for the motion-detecting cameras. Project Natal isn’t going to follow you into the kitchen, after all (though it may go to your office). With the technology we have, you’d have to stand on a dot in a large room dedicated to this visual interface, and of course everything probably goes to hell if you have someone standing next to you and pointing, saying “oh, that one looks nice!”
Still, it’s this kind of forward-looking interface that sets the foundation for the next generation. I mean, Microsoft Surface isn’t going to be in everybody’s living room (not at ten grand anyway), but you better believe that Microsoft wants it there, so they’ve got to have a follow-up on the way that uses all the pieces to better effect.
Man, I need to shut up. Just watch the videos, they’re cool. The Vimeo video (top) is the Samsung one, created by D’strict, and the YouTube one is by Obscura Digital, no stranger to crazy projection projects.
[via Fast Company]