Thursday, February 07, 2008

Jeff Han's Amazing Multi-Touch UI

Check. This. Out. My media prof emailed this TED Talk vid to my whole class. I think this is spectacular:



Told you so. For those saying this is just what the iPhone does, note that this was recorded a year ago. Also, the iPhone doesn't support more than 2 points of contact to be computed at a time, whereas this device can handle at least 20 according to Han. (He does not give an exact number but demonstrates using all 10 of his fingers, and says somebody else could be there manipulating objects as well.) In any case, the potential for this technology is nigh unfathomable. The photo exploring and object sculpting are fun, but what really struck me was the demonstration he gave near the end involving animated characters. I've been excited to watch the nascent stages of Mo-Capping over the last few years, and now similar human life can be injected into objects to create a puppet-like medium. Plus, unlike super-high-budget Peter Jackson movies that can afford to Mo-Cap, the average artist with average resources can take this on easily. (Assuming this technology is to be made attainable by that demographic.)

Imagine the potential for video games, too. The possibilities are endless.

This is all especially interesting to me because it's a perfect example of the aspect of my class I've taken the most interest in: that is, the notion of moving toward interfaceless-interaction in various media, as discussed in one of our texts, Remediation by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin.

Labels: , ,

3 Comments:

At 1:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

People are taking it one step further this year by removing the need for touch. I saw somewhere manipulation of elements on-screen with just movement of fingers and hands without holding any equipment for it.

The multitouch interface is going to be commercially available this year in the form of Microsoft's 'surface', basically the same deal in the video.

 
At 7:52 AM, Blogger Dave said...

If you can find that link, post it. :-)

 
At 11:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ummm I think this might have been the touchless thing, http://gizmodo.com/351998/elliptic-touchless-ui-puts-the-input-interface-in-thin-air

might have been another one somewhere too.

As for the microsoft surface,
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

 

Post a Comment

<< Home