Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Moving Away From the Mouse and Keyboard

Imagine a tabletop where you can see a virtual representation of shared work areas, collaborative games, or art projects. At Wired’s NextFest in May 2004, Dr. Chia Shen’s research group at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL), demonstrated a collaborative table utilizing a multi-user multi-touch DiamondTouch surface combined with DiamondSpin virtual tabletop applications. If you want to interact with the tabletop, you simply touch the screen! 

This team is definitely thinking ahead to the real world. The DiamondTouch surface allows multiple people (up to 4 now) to touch and interact with the table surface *simultaneously* as it tracks each user. How many of us like to set things on our worktable? Not to worry, the surface is debris-tolerant--go ahead and keep stacking those coffee cups, soda cans and other items while you work as it won’t interfere with the interactivity.

DiamondSpin is a Java Tool Kit that enables around-the-table interactions. For the technical details, visit: http://www.merl.com/people/shen/research.html

Also at the show was Breakout for Two, from the Media Lab Europe in Ireland. Similar to soccer, dodgeball or bombardment that we played as kids, in this game, players in separate locations must throw or kick a real ball against a real wall to break through a projection of virtual blocks that partially hide a live video image of the other player. The object is to break the blocks. The first hit produces a crack and subsequent hits produce more cracks until the block breaks and disappears. The player who breaks through the most blocks first, wins! 

Instead of sitting in front of a screen to play a game, this allows you to be active and maintain a sense of community in a physical way.  At the show, it was set up to throw the balls at each other and, needless to say, it was one of the most popular attractions for kids.

http://www.medialabeurope.org/hc/projects/breakoutfortwo/

In the Emerging Technologies area of SIGGRAPH 2004 in August, the NTT Cyber Solutions Lab from Japan demonstrated their “Air Jets Interface” which alllows a user to receive a sense of touch (force feedback) from virtual objects. Unlike many attempts to do this in the past, there are no wires or attachments to hinder user comfort. The air jets interface system that creates the feeling of touching a three-dimensional object consists of a detector, a display and a force feedback unit. Some examples of possible uses are video media that allows people to touch their pet or other virtual animal; teaching history by allowing a class of students to touch a dinosaur and feel it breathe on them; or in the creation of music by hitting or pressing a series of virtual musical instruments.

http://www.siggraph.org/s2004/conference/etech/untethered.php?=conference