AR Cometh, Sixth Sense talk at TED Options

[Aaron]

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_...ixth_sense.html

A new technology to include metadata in real life. It reminds me very much of SR4 AR technology.

[lunchbox311]

Very nice!

[Draco18s]

I'll wait for it to get smaller, but that's really cool.

[TBRMInsanity]

:drool: I can't wait to get the commercial version. I wonder if they did any work with either Apple for multi-touch or Microsoft with their interactive surface?

[hobgoblin]

already talked about in at least two threads (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[AllTheNothing]

Projectors aren't the ideal for display, they can bother people around you and created problems when privacy is required; holographic glasses would be much better.

[hobgoblin]

except they are not that available...

tho there are more then one company working on it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

(most products are technically video glasses that makes you either focus on the video or the outside world, not overlay one on the other)

[GreyBrother]

First: Where is she from? I don't recognize that dialect.

Second: Cool, but yes, glasses as displays would be much better but how can you then input information?

[Vermithrax]

One problem with this system will be the "service providers". You will likely have to pay for the directory service and when you look up the Amazon entry on a book you will probably have to sit through an advertisement, or have a banner ad taking up 1/4 the viewing area, much like the Internet today.
Plus, as has been pointed out, there are privacy issues. I personally wouldnt want information such as my full name, airline ticket info (this includes plane seating info), or the number I'm dialing, displayed in a way an eavesdropper can easily see.
The technology will have to evolve to the point where it can be displayed for the recipient only.

[Aaron]

First: Where is she from? I don't recognize that dialect.

Not sure. Something Romance-y, I think. My best guess is Belgian.

Second: Cool, but yes, glasses as displays would be much better but how can you then input information?

The problem with glasses is that it's hard to focus on something that close to your eye without losing focus on whatever else you're looking at. Even if you could do so easily, there's the problem of getting a sufficiently high resolution. There's always the "shoot lasers into your eye to paint the data on your retina" approach, but that would require a very precise targeting system and an apparatus that doesn't block your view. A laser could be bounced off of glasses, but then there's the issue of real-time eyeball tracking. Etc., usw.

[Dream79]

Seems interesting. I think at some point they should get together with Life Clipper and do a bit of repackaging and come up with something awesome.

http://www.torpus.com/lifeclipper/

[GreyBrother]

Aaron: Thanks for the Hint, i'm always curious about english dialects.

It's hard yes... maybe "In the Future!"™ we all wear glass displays in front of our head. But how could that be practical?

[AllTheNothing]

Second: Cool, but yes, glasses as displays would be much better but how can you then input information?

The input issue is probably the biggest one, it could be handled using special gloves with tags to highlight the position of the fingers relative to a sensor (probably part of the glasses) and some feedback system to give limited tactile perception (for example it could be used a system of small airbags placed at the fingers tip that inflate when "touching" virtual objects providing the feeling of pressure to simulate the contact with the object) to interact with virtual interfaces (virtual keyboards, virtual icon, etc.); than many neurological research project are underway to map the activity of the brain, potentialy it could bring to the development of neural interfaces.

[Neraph]

except they are not that available...

tho there are more then one company working on it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

(most products are technically video glasses that makes you either focus on the video or the outside world, not overlay one on the other)

You've seen things like this, where they stream things through a transparent crystal display? All you need to do is get those into a glasses format, and put a reflective film over the outside.

[Neraph]

The input issue is probably the biggest one, it could be handled using special gloves with tags to highlight the position of the fingers relative to a sensor (probably part of the glasses) and some feedback system to give limited tactile perception (for example it could be used a system of small airbags placed at the fingers tip that inflate when "touching" virtual objects providing the feeling of pressure to simulate the contact with the object) to interact with virtual interfaces (virtual keyboards, virtual icon, etc.); than many neurological research project are underway to map the activity of the brain, potentialy it could bring to the development of neural interfaces.

There was already a post a couple months ago about a cap people demo'd that allowed them to play pong with their minds. I can't search the thing though... Working on it.

[AllTheNothing]

There was already a post a couple months ago about a cap people demo'd that allowed them to play pong with their minds. I can't search the thing though... Working on it.

Damn, I've missed that one.
Well it seems that we're closer to the neural interfaces than I expected, damn good news.

[TBRMInsanity]

You've seen things like this, where they stream things through a transparent crystal display? All you need to do is get those into a glasses format, and put a reflective film over the outside.

You wouldn't necessarily need a reflective film on the outside of the glasses. Images that close to your eye would be small, the righting alone would be as small as the thickness of your fingernail. Someone maybe able to see that your looking something up but they would be hard pressed to see what you were looking up.

[hobgoblin]

Second: Cool, but yes, glasses as displays would be much better but how can you then input information?

same way its currently done. via a camera built into the glasses...

or to be more exact, the setup is like this:

a camera that looks at whats in front of you at all times, looking for 4 brightly colored markers that it knows are your thumbs and index fingers.

a projector with a mirror (the mirror is probably there as the current small projectors are still a bit to bulky to be directed forward rather then downwards), this is the screen.

i suspect the software is set up to go into some kind of suspend mode if it do not see one or more of the markers for a while, where the only thing its doing is to check the camera for said markers ever so often.

when a marker is registered, it either displays a launch interface, or resumes the last task being performed/app used.

then, depending on the number of markers seen, and how they are in relation to each other, as well as depending on what apps currently being run, different input is assumed.

take that paint app for instance, depending on the camera seeing the thumb marker for the same hand, the index finger will be on or off the "paper".

i guess that if one wants to, one can use a ir setup, with transparent caps on the fingers that deal with different wavelengths of ir light, instead of the current color setup (tho it will require a second camera, or forgo the ability to take a picture with a gesture).

if one replace the projector with video glasses, the fingers would be behind the interface, and so would make it a bit more complicated to grasp mentally. but for the system itself, it would be business as usual if the camera placement is correctly aligned with the output of the glasses.