Bjork tours with multi-touch surface computer
- Posted: Aug 20, 2007 at 10:50 AM
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- 2 Comments
Bjork may be as crazy as a soup sandwich, but I'll give her credit for her latest phase being technologically interesting. She's put Grammy-nominated Damian Taylor on tour playing a reactable.
The reactable is an open-source application that runs on a surface computer. There are builds for a number of operating systems, but the device that immediately stood out to me, of course, was the Microsoft Surface. Read more on Tech Digest, read an interview with Damian Taylor about reactable on Wired, check out the reactable site here, or just watch the demo videos (1 and 2) on YouTube.
The videos are worth a watch if for no other reason than to get amped about the future of computing UI. How cool would it be to drop volume knobs specific to your applications all over your physical desktop? Or throw down some knobs tied real-time to properties in a 3D Studio Max model?
The reactable is an open-source application that runs on a surface computer. There are builds for a number of operating systems, but the device that immediately stood out to me, of course, was the Microsoft Surface. Read more on Tech Digest, read an interview with Damian Taylor about reactable on Wired, check out the reactable site here, or just watch the demo videos (1 and 2) on YouTube.
The videos are worth a watch if for no other reason than to get amped about the future of computing UI. How cool would it be to drop volume knobs specific to your applications all over your physical desktop? Or throw down some knobs tied real-time to properties in a 3D Studio Max model?
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Can't speak for everyone but the table top PC idea isn't my cup of tea. The change f perspective sometimes would have you hunched over, making for an uncomfortable workstation, not to mention the inclined display itself makes reaching the far corners difficult.
If it could be made more like the workstation in Minority Report, as in an inclination greater than 45 degrees to vertical, while still being able to suspend objects (virtual ones) in the air, then great. Even real objects suspended with magnets would be more useful or very fine hairs to grab objects (think Spiderman's/gecko grip on walls).
I've been wondering also about the old parabolic holograms concept (where with a (bowl shaped) curved mirror you get virtual objects that look like they are floating in mid ai. If that concept and this multi-touch could be merged, that would simulate the Minority Report monitor and maybe even better it. As a worstation though instead of a mirror you'd have an LCD display (etched on glass or plastic) with the same parabolic design that creates the same virtual objects as the mirror but is interactive like the Minority Report workstation. (I wonder what resolution you'd need on a curved parabolic display to achieve those kinds of holograms.))
Can't speak for everyone but the table top PC idea isn't my cup of tea. The change f perspective sometimes would have you hunched over, making for an uncomfortable workstation, not to mention the inclined display itself makes reaching the far corners difficult.
If it could be made more like the workstation in Minority Report, as in an inclination greater than 45 degrees to vertical, while still being able to suspend objects (virtual ones) in the air, then great. Even real objects suspended with magnets would be more useful or very fine hairs to grab objects (think Spiderman's/gecko grip on walls).
I've been wondering also about the old parabolic holograms concept (where with a (bowl shaped) curved mirror you get virtual objects that look like they are floating in mid ai. If that concept and this multi-touch could be merged, that would simulate the Minority Report monitor and maybe even better it. As a worstation though instead of a mirror you'd have an LCD display (etched on glass or plastic) with the same parabolic design that creates the same virtual objects as the mirror but is interactive like the Minority Report workstation. (I wonder what resolution you'd need on a curved parabolic display to achieve those kinds of holograms.))
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