Video: No-touch, mid-air 3D input interface for mobile devices

A lot of sophisticated, portable gadgets nowadays have a touchscreen, but what if you could operate those gadgets with your fingers – without touching the display or any part of the device itself? A research team led by Masatoshi Ishikawa, a professor at the University of Tokyo, has developed a way to operate mobile devices by moving your fingers in mid-air.

The technology is mainly based on a high-speed mini camera, which can shoot 154 pictures per second and records your fingers’ movements (vertical and horizontal), and an image-processing chip, which determines whether your fingers are moving forward or backward. The researchers says the system is especially suitable for 3D applications on mobile devices, setting it apart from other gesture-recognition technologies.

The prototype module allows users to turn the page of an e-book by flicking a finger in mid-air, for example. Move your finger towards the display, and the image on the screen expands (and vice versa). Make a circular motion, and the object displayed starts rotating, etc. etc.

The research team hopes to commercialize its technology in the near future, especially targeting makers of 3D software and 3D hardware.

Here’s a video that provides more insight:
http://www.youtube.com/v/8HXnjAyT3cM&hl=en_US&fs=1&

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Pen and finger interface on a Surface looks extremely Courier-like

Hmm. What does this remind me of? Oh, that’s right, the Courier. The ability to use both finger and pen on the Courier concept seems like it would benefit from these UI elements — and probably is. I doubt the two projects could be working on ideas so complementary and not be aware of each other. Or could they? Whatever the case, it looks pretty cool. When I talk about touch-based interfaces, I think of stuff like that little pull-out toolbar and natural gestures like holding something down with one hand and tapping it with another — not the multi-touch-for-baby of the iPad/iPhone interface.

This is why I continue to be excited for the Courier despite having no indication that it’s ever going to actually come out. These things seem to work fine on the Surface as well, but when am I going to ever have one of those in my apartment?

[via WMPowerUser]

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