Human Kind and Technology » animals

Seeing like a house-fly

ET — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:00:50 +0000

By this time there is a prototype of a surround sight camera which allows to identify 3d-geometrics by computing the distances to the camera.

Because of seeing this technology on a 2d-monitor and just a little bit of the output of the camera (for me) it is hard to envision the use case addressed in the video. BVut it seems to be interesting to be able to see like a fly. So than it might also be possible to study insects in a less abstract way!?! Another option is to spot a person the way (light two steps in front of him) without lighten the whole way or even room (for what reason ever ;).

[sti.epfl.ch: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne]

Touchless UI with ultrasound

ET — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 00:00:44 +0000

The firm Elliptic Labs has developed a prototype for touchless user interfaces which is easier to implement and cheaper than today used camera-image-based technology and utilizes ultrasound. I like this “hand gesture – in / out (play / pause)”.

This can be a cool technology. Imagine to sit on the sofa watching a film and just have to use this gesture “out / pause” to hold the film. It’ll be something like “Minority Report” (again).

But what’s with animals (especially pets)? For example dogs can hear these (ultra)sounds and I think it’ll hurt them! Or will this attract bats to come around?

[ellipticlabs.com: Elliptic Labs]