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No-touch screens: The hi-tech gadgets making 'Minority Report' come true

Minority Report

When Stephen Spielberg came up with the motion controls in Minority Report in 2002, he made sure to get it right.

He went to MIT and asked them what a PC would be in 2054 - and MIT, sensibly decided that voice and hands-on interfaces would A) look bad on film, and B) be old hat by mid-21st century.

The result? Tom Cruise vogueing in front of a translucent screen - doing what looks like advanced tai chi moves to pause and fast forward videos.

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Twelve years on, though, Spielberg’s experts have already justified their pay cheques - many of the gestures Cruise uses have been used in touchscreen gizmos already.

But a new generation of gadgets are already making the next leap - ditching ‘touch’ altogether, and forging into a future where we just wave our hands around to interact with computers.

                              

Google Glass and the ‘Cockpit’ for apps

When Spielberg filmed Minority Report, Tom Cruise’s job was made harder by the fact that the screens were added in post-production - he really was just waving his hands in thin air.

But researchers at the University of Manitoba suggest that the interface of the future might look like the eerie, pre-production version - with people waving their arms at screens only then can see, inside Google Glass.

The interface demonstrated by University of Manitoba researchers.
The interface demonstrated by University of Manitoba researchers.

Researchers designed a bowl-like ‘cockpit’ of screens around users, visible only within Google Glass.

Users can pull virtual screens into view as they need them - or ‘pin’ important ones within view.

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‘Everyone who has tried it so far has been very excited to see the array of windows moving along with them,’ says resarcher Barrett Ens.

‘It isn't crowded because the displays are not right up close. Each display is set just within reach, half a metre away, which we found to be the ideal distance to balance both viewing and touch.’

 

Displair

The Russian-made Displair screen allows users to put hands right through it, while gesturing with both hands - and can even pull off two tricks that Tom Cruise’s screen can’t, namely adding taste and smell to the video on screen.

This isn’t witchcraft - it’s quite literally vapourware... as in water vapour.

The display works by projecting a display onto a thin curtain of water vapour
The display works by projecting a display onto a thin curtain of water vapour

The Displair blasts up a curtain of water vapour, and a projector shines a screen image onto it.

A camera behind the 1cm-thick sheet of water vapour captures movements, much like Microsoft’s Kinect.

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Obviously, spraying a sheet of water upwards isn’t cheap. The Displair is priced at more than £10,000 per unit, and has so far largely seen use in commerce.

 

Microsoft IllumiRoom

The Kinect sensor on Microsoft’s Xbox One already lets gamers control the machine by gestures, or by voice - but a new Microsoft concept turns your entire room into a game, rather like Minority Report meets Star Trek’s holodeck.

The Illumiroom system was designed by Microsoft Research, and shown off in a video where gamers move through a game world in their living room.

It’s thought to use Kinect-style scanners to ‘map’ the entire room (Kinect only maps players), then project the game world around obstacles such as sofas and coffee tables.

Players can interact by talking, moving their arms, or simply walking about.

The Illumiroom combines the Kinect module with a projector which 'fills' the room with light
The Illumiroom combines the Kinect module with a projector which 'fills' the room with light



Microsoft says, cryptically, 'It augments the area surrounding a television screen with projected visualizations to enhance the traditional living room entertainment experience, using a projector to blur the lines between on-screen content and the environment we live in allowing us to combine our virtual and physical worlds.'

'Our system can change the appearance of the room, induce apparent motion, extend the field of view, and enable entirely new game experiences.

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'Our system uses the appearance and the geometry of the room (captured by Kinect) to adapt the projected visuals in real-time without any need to custom pre-process the graphics.

 

Leap Motion HD

At first glance, Leap Motion HD looks very much like another motion camera - but the infrared sensor is far more detailed than any other on the market, sensitive to movements as tiny as 1mm.

It's already seen as a possible successor to the mouse - and has been used for fine-grained control systems such as moving a robot arm.

Leap uses infrared sensors and cameras, like Kinect - but Leap “watches” fingers, rather than your whole body.

You point, squeeze and rotate, rather than capering about - and it’s instantly far more usable (and dignified) as a result.

 Yu Jiang Tham created this video of a robotic arm controlled in free space by Leap Motion
Yu Jiang Tham created this video of a robotic arm controlled in free space by Leap Motion



The gizmo is the size of a pack of chewing gum - it plugs into PCs and Macs via USB, and sits ideally, in front of your keyboard, “looking up” at your hands. The sensor is also built into a few laptops, and set to appear in more models from HP and Asus over the coming months.

Leap’s sensors are far more detailed than previous “motion control” systems such as Microsoft’s Kinect - it’s built for hand and finger controls, and is much more “mouse like” than previous attempts.

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It’s also very responsive. The sensors work quickly enough that you can play a tennis game, “poking” the ball back into the screen with a finger.

 

Dizmo

Dizmo aims to create a Minority Report-style interface for the home - with a simplified control system for gadgets, which can be accessed via any touchscreen.

Users can control anything digital - including ‘connected’ gadgets - via a simple touch interface which looks like a set of Post-It notes.

People working on a project together can move notes around, save, and access Dizmo from any other PC, Mac or touch device (except iOS ones) - it’s like Windows for the post-PC world.

Dizmo
Dizmo



The software launched on KickStarter, and has since received millions in investment. It could be simple enough to work as a way to keep an eye on, and control, the increasing legions of ‘connected’ gizmos such as thermostats - without imagining that everyone will switch operating system to do so.

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Dizmo says ‘In a home environment, imagine using your digital book of recipes to prepare your favourite dish, while following your friends on Twitter, keeping an eye on your baby monitor and the front door webcam. At the same time, you are able to follow the latest news, sport event or make a video call, all on the same touchscreen.’