G-Speak lets you control your computer without ever coming near it.
John Underkoffler thrilled geeks and normals alike when he designed the revolutionary computer interface seen in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. Using nothing more than gloves and gestures, Tom Cruise was able to explore video clips and massive amounts of data using the futuristic controls. Now, the real life version of Underkoffler’s creation, called G-Speak, is slowly making its way towards market. We’ve shown you Underkoffler’s presentation at the most recent TED conference, and explored G-Speak and other creations in development at startup company Oblong. Now, the guys at Crunch Gear managed to snag some face time with the interface in person. Watch below as a MIT undergraduate explains gestures and demonstrates two special programs (Grabby and Erf) made to show off G-Speak’s futuristic controls. The kid may not have Cruise’s style, but he still puts on a good show.
As you can see in the video, G-Speak uses a mounted camera to track the user’s gloves as they move in space. It has sub millimeter precision and can handle quick motions and multiple users. You and your friends will never have to touch a computer again. In his TED talk, Underkoffler promised that in a few years, we wouldn’t even need the gloves anymore – computer vision and tracking would improve enough so you could just use your bare hands. I’m looking forward to the day that I’ll be able to wade through the digital world looking like an orchestra conductor. Sure, we’ll probably have gesture TVs, and definitely gesture video games in the next few months, but they won’t have the level of control of G-Speak. This thing is still one of a kind.
[image and video credits: CrunchGear]
[source: Crunch Gear, MIT Media Lab]
Comments
In five years or less, we’ll have cameras (plural) in our computer/game/television rooms using an 802.11n signal to interact with the world. I don’t think g or b will have enough signal strength to handle the load. The current model of cable/dish television will pretty much be dead by then. (Everyone thought that dead tree tech would be the first to go extinct, but Rupert Murdoch is fighting tooth and claw to the horrible bitter end.) And considering that cablecos are bundling telephony, telecommunications will fit in somewhere. All it boils down to is affordability.
I wonder how much of this crosses into Microsofts Kinect technology for the xbox. Seems to be the same thing but with Microsoft I dont need the gloves.
What about text input?
@Doug
The gloves don’t keep you from using a traditional keyboard. Also, speech to text microphones….whatever you feel like. I think G-Speak is much more about navigating data than creating it.