Showing posts with label user interfaces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label user interfaces. Show all posts

2012-05-28

ZeroN - Levitated Interaction Element

LabCAST - The MIT Media Lab Video Podcast » Archive » #61 ZeroN

What if materials could defy gravity, so that we could leave them suspended in mid-air? ZeroN is a physical and digital interaction element that floats and moves in space by computer-controlled magnetic levitation.


ZeroN - Jinha Lee MIT Media Lab


From Levitating Point to Levitating Space

To realize such interactions, we developed a magnetic control system that can levitate and actuate a permanent magnet in a pre- defined 3D volume. This is combined with an optical tracking and display system that projects images on the levitating object. Conventional levitation is for levitating an object at one point. In ZeroN Project, users can move a levitated object to anywhere in a predefined 3D space and leave it there without dropping it since the system constantly readjusts both magnetically and mechanically. It is about turning 3D space into levitating space.



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2012-05-23

The Leap: an Affordable Accurate Gesture Control Interface

A 'Leap' forward in gesture-control interfaces? - CNN.com




A company called Leap Motion wants to make that kind of gesture control a reality, and it hopes to take the first step with a new type of motion controller.
The Leap is a simple motion controller that you can plug into any USB port on your computer. Once it's plugged in and you've installed the Leap software, it turns the 8-cubic feet of air in front of it into "3D interaction space" — basically, it'll track any and all motion within that space, letting you use your hands to do whatever you could do with a mouse.


Leap Motion

Say goodbye to your mouse and keyboard.

Leap represents an entirely new way to interact with your computers. It’s more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more sensitive than a touchscreen.  For the first time, you can control a computer in three dimensions with your natural hand and finger movements.

This isn’t a game system that roughly maps your hand movements.  The Leap technology is 200 times more accurate than anything else on the market — at any price point. Just about the size of a flash drive, the Leap can distinguish your individual fingers and track your movements down to a 1/100th of a millimeter.

Source: Leap Motion

Leap Motion 3D motion-control device changes how we interact with computers - Tech Talk - CBS News


Currently, Microsoft Kinect is the biggest player in the 3D motion-control technology. However, Kinect is not accurate enough to track handwriting. Leap Motion says the Leap is 200 times more sensitive than existing technologies.

"It was this gap between what's easy in the real world but very complicated to do digitally, like molding a piece of clay or creating a 3D model, that inspired us to create the Leap and fundamentally change how people work with their computers," Leap Motion chief executive officer and co-founder Michael Buckwald said in a press release.




Leap Motion: 3D hands-free motion control, unbound | Cutting Edge - CNET News


"We want to create as vibrant a developer ecosystem as possible, and we're reaching out to developers in all sorts of" fields, CEO Michael Buckwald told CNET:
We want there to be world-changing applications that fundamentally transform how people interact with their operating system or browse the Web.... The goal is to fundamentally transform how people interact with computers and to do so in the same way that the mouse did, which means that the transformation affects everyone, both from the most basic use case all the way up to the most advanced use cases you can imagine for computing technology.


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2012-02-01

Tobii Eye Controlled User Interfaces

Video: Navigate a computer … with your eyeballs | SmartPlanet



The mouse. What once seemed like a revolutionary way of navigating a computer is now outdated. Trackpads, touchscreen phones and tablets respond to a flick of our fingertips, and virtual assistants take our verbal commands.

But it looks like we’re about to take computer responsiveness to a whole new level.

Tobii is new eyeball tracking software that can follow your eye movements to toggle between windows, scroll as you’re reading, zoom in while looking at maps and more. All you have to do is a quick calbration at the beginning as the computer tracks your eyes while you watch a dot moving on the screen.

Eye tracking and eye control for research, communication and integration

Eye tracking by Tobii Technology has revolutionized research in many fields and enabled communication for thousands of people with special needs. Tobii offers world-leading eye tracking and eye control for research, communication and industrial integration.



Tobii is built into the laptop, which is made by Lenovo, and is located below the screen. It's actually pretty simple (well, sort of). It works by shooting infrared lights into your eyes to cause red-eye (sounds dangerous, I know, but they assure me it's perfectly safe). By doing this, Tobii is able to create a 3D model of your eyeball and determine where your eye is relative to space. It then tracks the glint off of your eyeball to determine where your foveal vision, or sharp central vision, is, and, consequently, where you're looking.

Tobii unveils the world’s first eye-controlled laptop | Tobii.com

Envision eye control in PC’s

For users, eye control is thrilling and makes the computer interaction more effective. It is as if the computer understands you; just glance at an icon or gadget and more information will be presented; You can zoom pictures or maps and automatically center on the area you are looking at; The computer can auto-dim and brighten the screen when it recognizes your eyes to increase battery time. Eye control can also speed things up by enabling new and intuitive ways to switch between open windows, and browse your emails and documents.



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2010-03-12

Gesture Cube a Gesture-based 3D User Interface

Clipped from: The Gesture Cube may not be real but it should be


crunchgear logo

IDENT’s GestIC technology is a gesture-based interface system and they’re showing off by describing a cube of some sort that allows you to turn, twist, and pinch your data in 3D. Each side will have different functions and you can access messages and the web just by slipping and sliding on the surface.


Clipped from: YouTube - Gesture Cube
No need to touch just give it a wave!

Just wave your hand to access music, web, your family and friends. You don´t even need to touch the surface.

Gesture Cube uses 3D spatial movement tracking to help transform navigating a device into a magical intuitive experience. The underlying GestIC® technology detects your hand´s approach and movements - your favorite apps and media all at a wave of your hand.



Clipped from: Gesture Cube - No need to touch – just give it a wave!
The Gesture Cube ...

....is not just technology for tech’s sake. It is thoughtfully designed and deeply rooted in a genuine understanding of consumers’ expectations and needs. We have explored the possibilities of 3D technology to craft a product experience that is so intuitive it‘s almost magical. Using natural gestures to control our electronics helps to draw them closer to our natural behaviour, making things easier and more fun. The result is an intelligent product concept with unlimited possibilities for enhancing daily life with effortless interaction. The Gesture Cube´s design is simple yet so beautiful it doubles as a sculptural icon in your living space.



Sources:
  1. YouTube - Gesture Cube
  2. The Gesture Cube may not be real but it should be
  3. Gesture Cube - No need to touch – just give it a wave!
Related:
  1. Gesture Cube, the magical, intuitive, theoretical 3D interface (video) -- Engadget
  2. The Gesture Cube Is Basically the iPad Cubed - gesture cube - Gizmodo
  3. Gesture Cube Responds To Waving Your Hand | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
  4. Gesture Cube | Design Milk
  5. gesture cube
  6. Gesture Cube Tracks Spatial Movement For Effortless Interaction - The Design blog
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2007-12-04

Whole-Body Computer Interface

A combination of movement sensors and ultrasound emitters might lead to versatile motion capture systems for controlling computers

Several sensors measuring about 2.5 centimetres on each side are attached to a person's legs and arms. The sensors detect movement in two different ways: accelerometers and gyroscopes measure motion, but ultrasonic beeps are also emitted.

Tiny microphones mounted on the torso pick up these beeps, allowing a laptop computer, carried in a backpack, to calculate the distance to the sensor. The system is similar to, albeit much simpler than, bats' ultrasonic echolocation, and together with the motion sensors provides a more accurate overall picture of body movement. The small backpack also holds the batteries that power the system.


blog it
via: Whole-Body Computer Interfaces | Think Artificial
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2007-11-25

Futuristic User Interfaces

From Science Fiction movies we are already familiar with exotic computer interfaces like the one's designed for this purpose by Mark Coleran Visual Designer:


See also

Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies

In real world there is already notable progress in technology of advanced computer interfaces, like:

Laser-based tracking for real-time gesture acquisition:

[...] The problem of tracking hands and fingers on natural scenes has received much attention using passive acquisition vision systems and computationally intense image processing. We are currently studying a simple active tracking system using a laser diode (visible or invisible light), steering mirrors, and a single non-imaging photodetector, which is capable of acquiring three dimensional coordinates in real time without the need of any image processing at all. Essentially, it is a smart rangefinder scanner that instead of continuously scanning over the full field of view, restricts its scanning area, on the basis of a real-time analysis of the backscattered signal, to a very narrow window precisely the size of the target.



For some other futuristic user interfaces see:
via: Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology: Fictional Interfaces
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