Techno Babble

A 360 degree, auto-stereoscopic,  3D display prototype from Sony was showcased in the Emerging Technologies section at the recent Siggraph 2010 Conference/Exhibition.

The cylindrical unit measures 13cm in diameter and 27cm in height. It can be connected to a PC, or other device, through a digital video input port. No special glasses are needed to see the 3D image.

The display is also equipped with a gesture sensor that enables the display to be controlled interactively using hand motions.

I thought I’d already written about this but cannot find a reference to it anywhere.

Bonfire is a project that uses 2 micro projectors to project an interactive display image on either side of a laptop keyboard. Cameras are used to enable hand gesture tracking and object recognition within the projected display area.

Presented in a paper at UIST 2009, if you have access to ACM documents, you can read more at

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1622176.1622202

The Dell S300wi is a short throw projector that will provide an image at a size of 24.5 ft from a distance of 10.8 ft  (or a size of 5 ft from a distance of 2.2ft away) at a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.

The projector provides wifi (b/g/n) in addition to the normal wired connections for VGA, HDMI , S-Video and composite inputs.

It also comes with a wireless pen that can work as a pen, mouse or pointing device. The pen has 3 buttons equivalent to a Left Mouse button, Right Mouse button and a 3rd button to switch between different interactive modes and a retractable nib that allows a user to “draw” on the projected image surface. It is powered by 2 AA batteries that provide up to 50 hours of usage time.

Watch it in action in the following video

and if that’s not enough …

… the S300wi is 3D ready, which actually means that it is 3D DLP-Link compatible, and with a pair of suitable active shutter glasses you can view the projected image in glorious 3D.

Scheduled for general availability in late May at a price to be announced…

With the recent burst of enthusiasm for the iPad it suddenly occurred to me that I’d seen it all before.

Just seems remarkably similar to the PADD – Personal Access Display Device that I’d seen in the mid 1990′s (or more accurately that hails from the year 2374) as seen on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/PADD

Different versions of the PADD were available depending on your species, Klingon and Cardassian, for example, often being more angular than the Federation ones, and consisted of a large touchscreen area for entering or reading data.

How long will it be before we see the Apple iTransporter and iReplicator ?

Footnote:

Science Fact or Fiction

Replicator ?

check out the Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3150, from NASA

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/29/nasas-version-of-star-trek-replicator-ready-for-on-orbit-test/

… creates parts for airplanes — not food and drink — and uses an environmentally-friendly construction process to manufacture layered metal objects. This technique could revolutionize the aviation industry and may have applications for the future spacecraft and the medical community as well. It can be used to make small, detailed parts or large structural pieces of airplanes.

check out the video from the NASA link at

http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/electron_beam.htm#

Transporter ?

As it happens, I noted an (old) article in the UK Newspaper – The Independent – which describes potentially the first breakthrough using the revolutionary technology of Quantum Teleportation.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/breakthrough-brings-star-trek-teleport-a-step-closer-451673.html

Canon’s MR technology uses a head-mounted display (HMD) and shows CAD (computer-aided design) data in a real space.

There’s also an interesting article about the system at

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20100204/179912/)

Gesture based controls are starting to change the way users interact with computer applications – as seen, for example, with the Wiimote a remote control used with the Wii games console.

Wouldn’t it be great if the system could detect what was happening by interpreting movement and gestures directly without  the need for any input device?

In order to do this, technology is required that can build up a 3-Dimensional picture of the scene or environment where the user is placed. Movement and gestures within this 3D enviroment can then be used by the system to determine what the user is trying to do.

The ZCam^TM is a video camera that can capture depth information (which is used to build the 3D model) along with video and is produced by 3DV Systems.

http://www.3dvsystems.com/

The technology is based on the Time of Flight principle. In this technique, 3D depth data is generated by sending pulses of infra-red light  into the scene and detecting the light reflected from the surfaces of objects in the scene. Using the time taken for a light pulse to travel to the target and back, the distance can be calculated and used to build up 3D depth information for all objects in the scene. 

The technology performs superior depth imaging (depth resolution of millimeters) in real-time (60 fps or more), using little or no CPU.

The latest ZCam^TM is based on the DeepC^TM technology which is a chipset that incoporates the sensing technology.

There are a number of related publications which describe the technology in greater detail and can be found at

http://www.3dvsystems.com/technology/tech.html

Creating an intuitive mechanism to replace the keyboard and/or mouse has been an aspiration for many people ever since Tom Cruise in “Minority Report” looked so cool moving files around with his fingers.

Perhaps this technology can be used in helping to achieve those aims.  

Sunlink International Holdings Limited and iView Limited have announced the worlds’ first handheld Personal Media Player (PMP) and presenter which incorporates pico projection technology. Unveiled at the recent Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2008 (from 14-17 April), the product will be the first such product to hit the market.

The pocket-size device is powered by the iView IPL630 VGA liquid crystal on silicon pico-projector module and Sunlink’s multi-media platform. It is fully self-contained with built-in rechargeable battery, a speaker, a 3.5” TFT touch screen, and remote control and a SD card slot. Equipped with a Microsoft Windows CE 5.0 core and Office Viewer, the product makes business presentation possible anytime, anywhere.

Currently there are no details about pricing or availability.

Dr. C.C.Change, Chairman of iView, is quoted as saying

“According to Insight MediaMedia, by 2011, there will be over 11M cell phones and PDAs embedded with pico-projector in use. We are very happy that SunView PMPP is the leader of the pack.”

References:

Sunlink Press Release

http://www.iviewdisplay.com/

A touch screen with tactile feedback.

Optimus Upravlator is an input device which features a 10.8 inch color LCD (800 ×600 pixels resolution) with 12 see-through buttons occupying its surface. Each of them has five contact points—center, top, bottom, left and right—freely assignable to user interface elements in the software of your choice.

Upravlator uses open standards and protocols and is compatible with Windows and Mac OS X, allowing for the use of many different applications.

Details at

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-upravlator/