[Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

Actually, the most difficult thing to do is make it work well in the  
real world.  Making it work isn't too difficult, there are lots of  
working variations, including the Pd-powered reacTable.  But video  
tracking is really limited.  You have to have completely steady  
lighting conditions (notice the lights were turned off in that demo).

I used that exact table interface at NIME at IRCAM.  It is certainly  
nifty, but it needs work to work in the real world.  The problem with  
video tracking is that there is no way to to track your finger,  
instead it just tracks shadows.  What happens is if the video  
tracking looses track of your finger for one instant, then it thinks  
you picked up your finger and put it back on the table. That can  
definitely screw up your actions.  And unfortunately which ever video  
tracking system thing I have seen, that exact thing happens quite  
frequently.

Then there are multitouch sensors, which probably more reliably track  
your finger, but they are quite slow, so they work fine for moving  
sliders and pressing buttons, but for drawing or musical control,  
they are quite limited.

I think that using pressure sensors will probably be the better way,  
over video tracking, but don't hold your breath either way.  Plus,  
more importantly, I haven't seen any killer apps for this yet, that's  
key.  Sure, its nifty to wiggle images around and zoom and navigate,  
but that's a really simple app.  Try making photoshop with that,  
where the interface "just disappears"  I don't think humans could  
remember enough gestures to map all the functions in Photoshop, so a  
menu would probably be necessary.

If you want to see a real killer demo, check  out the 1968 demo of  
Doug Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center.  That's a real demo.   
They basically showed up when many people were still using  
punchcards, and interactive computing was just beginning to take  
hold.  They should a actual, functional system with hyperlinks, a  
basic GUI, the mouse, video conferencing, custom computer furniture,  
etc. when most people were excited to be using the terminal:

http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html

I guess I am just sick of the amount of hype these days.  All these  
"media labs" put so much energy into hype, instead of making better  
things.

There, that's my rant.

.hc

On Nov 8, 2006, at 1:02 PM, Kyle Klipowicz wrote:

> I think that the most difficult (and useful) thing to do would be  
> some sort of book keeping to track individual fingers.  Maybe some  
> sort of gloves or fingertip sensors?  That would make things very  
> flexible.
>
> It sounds neat that you're doing an implementation.  Please post  
> any satisfying results to the list!
>
> ~Kyle
>
> On 11/8/06, Thomas Grill <gr at grrrr.org> wrote:
>
> Am 08.11.2006 um 05:46 schrieb Kyle Klipowicz:
>
>> I KNEW this had to have something to do with Jeff Han.  Brilliant  
>> technology.  As I understand it, Apple Computer has gotten  
>> involved financially with this.  I'd love to see it implemented!
>
> Actually this is fairly easy to implement. There are a number of  
> descriptions floating around in the net.
> Basically you need a transparent acrylic panel, IR emitters, a  
> beamer and a fast camera, minor drilling and assembling skills and  
> a multi-blob video tracker.
> I'm currently trying to build such a system.
>
> greetings,
> Thomas
>
> --
> Thomas Grill
> http://grrrr.org
>
>
>
>
>
> -- 
>
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> http://perhapsidid.blogspot.com
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