“Hollywood imitates life. And sometimes life imitates Hollywood” begins the report from the New York Times BITS blog, and we’d like to add especially in the case of Sci-Fi.
John Underkoffler, who helped create the future-cool computer interface in the film “Minority Report,” has brought that technology to real life. Using special gloves, he gave a demonstration at the TED Conference in Long Beach, Calif., on Friday.
Called the g-speak Spatial Operating Environment, it’s the whole reason he co-founded the company, Oblong Industries–to make the gesture-activated interface a reality.
“He pushed, pulled and twisted vast troves of photos and forms that were on a screen in front of him, compressing and stretching as he went. He zoomed in, zoomed out and rotated the images using six degrees of control. In one part of the demonstration, he reached into a series of movies, plucked out a single character from each and placed them onto a “table” together where they continued to move. (Oblong has released its own demonstration video).”
Much like the Nintendo Wii game console, which responds to gesture and motions, Mr. Underkoffler said this gesture technology was already being used in Fortune 50 companies, government agencies and universities, and he predicted that it would soon be available for consumers. “I think in five years’ time, when you buy a computer, you’ll get this,” he said.
The old model of “one human, one machine, one mouse, one screen” is passe, said Mr. Underkoffler, who spent 15 years at the MIT Media Lab before co-founding Oblong.
TechCrunch says that if the iPad is step one in the future of computing, then this is step two, or maybe three. So imagine what can be done when internet speed is added into the equation.
The marketplace. Apple’s iBook and App Store marketplaces will instantly be a must-attend venue for publishers.