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/

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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/

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Fab@Home is another project for making and using 3D printers, or rapid prototyping machines, and provides all the information necessary to build or buy your own machine that you can use to print 3-dimensional objects.

http://fabathome.org

Total estimated cost for all materials required for the whole build is around $2300.00

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3D printers are used to create 3-dimensional objects by depositing drops of plastic, or a similar material, layer by layer to build the object.

RepRap is a project to design and make a 3D printer that could copy itself. The project was started in February 2004 by Adrian Bowyer from Bath University and is made available under the open-source GNU General Public License. The core team consists of a number of volunteers from across the world in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.

Details of this project are available from

http://reprap.org/ 

and a guide about how to build the RepRap 1.0 "Darwin" machine can be found at

http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/RepRapOneDarwin

To date, here are the parts of RepRap that have been reproduced for itself (representing approximately 1/4 of the whole machine).

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