Posts Tagged interactive applications
Infractor is an innovative way of research
Posted by admin in Future Concepts on November 7th, 2009
This next device is odd, to say the least, but I can see how it would come in handy. There is a video of it after the jump if you want to see it in action, but it won’t make sense without a little bit of explanation.
Here’s how it works. You begin with a “light source” that is really a database of some information, like the New York Times, for example. This source is placed on a table that is probably best described as a Microsoft Surface (but isn’t).
This source shines a light with visible particles that essentially contains all the information of on that database. From there, the user can physically place a “prism” that filters out all the information except a certain subject. That subject can be pre-determined by the user by a jog wheel.
I suppose this would be a non-Wikipedia way of doing research. For example, let’s say you had a light source of world history, and you used the prison to filter out everything but Egyptian history. From there, you could use another prism for Cleopatra, the pyramids, or whatever piece of information you need.
I’m not certain why you couldn’t do what the Infractor does on a computer with an ordinary search engine, but the Infractor website says the presence of a physical object helps.
Perhaps the idea for the Infractor came from a Surface-like computer seen in the movie The Island, which operated with a desk-sized flat display and paperweight-like objects.
infractor – interactive, collaborative multitouch application from siwamat on Vimeo.
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[ Infractor is an innovative way of research copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Microsoft shows off its next-gen computing muscles on campuses nationwide
Posted by admin in Future Concepts on November 6th, 2009
Even though Microsoft could probably easily rest on the profits from Windows 7, it is always good to hear them working on new ways of interfacing with computers. Lately, chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundle has been going from college to college, showing off the latest next-gen computer prototype.
Mundle has a lot of interesting things to say about the way computers are headed. One of his demonstrations includes a computer that can project its images onto a pane of glass in front of him. He says that the future will probably bring about a workstation that will include multiple displays, that will eventually work their way into 3-D images. I can’t help but agree with him.
Mundle then used gestures to rotate and focus in on an image of a wind turbine. Gesture recognition is something that has been under development, and I’m certain will be perfected by the year 2054. (Because Minority Report takes place in that year.)
Mundle also showed how a computer can recognize handwriting when doing searches, but his results page was quite confusing as it showed many pages like a quilt of many tiny tiles. He then used eye-tracking to scan along those tiles, and each one would enlarge as it came into focus.
It really is quite amazing to see what they are working on, especially the eye-tracking. I don’t know whether that was just a special effect, but I certainly wouldn’t mind having that now. Perhaps Microsoft is one step closer to achieving that 2019 vision of the future.
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[ Microsoft shows off its next-gen computing muscles on campuses nationwide copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
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Microsoft shows off its next-gen computing muscles on campuses nationwide