That looks interesting. It can optimize usability e.g. in case of reading and therefore scrolling a lot on smartphones.
June 12, 2012
July 31, 2011
Tactile walker navigation
Researchers of the Viterbi School of Engineering (University of Southern California) constructed and evaluated a tactile vest in combination with a stereo head-mounted camera. So with the camera they are able to measure the distance to objects in sight and the vest gives tactile signals to the one who is wearing it. Their main use case is to help blind people orientating. Therefore they won’t need the blindman’s stick anymore.
I’m sure there are a few other use cases such as helping people to navigate while they have to look at something different (maybe for construction workers).
But first they have to smarten this technology up ;) and also improve some things. Because there may be some problems for blind people navigation especially with little ledges / tripping hazards. How to ‘visualize’ that with a tactile vest? Furthermore it would be a big innovation if navigation hints are in 3D so the user can easily go ahead and / or sideways. And so on.
[viterbi.usc.edu: “Guide Vests”]
March 20, 2011
Seeing like a house-fly
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]
February 18, 2011
Multitouch display * display
What could this big multitouch display be for?
So I think this wall possibly can support some kind of teamwork. But standing a long time in front of such a big display isn’t good for your eyes.
One little detail: The color chooser could be implemented by using gestures so a human can open it where he is.
February 13, 2011
Touch screen in car
Why do we need touch screens in cars instead of knobs or buttons to control volume and so on?
I think in one hand it’s a good idea because you can change the interface in one car very easily (from background to themes and whole controls or even the entire arrangement). But on the other hand the display in the video above is dazzling and the haptic feedback might be missing. So the driver could be more distracted than with conventional control elements.
November 8, 2010
3D dynamic hologram
Nearly three years ago the University of Arizona (UA) developed | announced a system which was able to print a three dimensional hologram in a couple of minutes. This 3D picture can be seen by human without special glasses.
Today the UA College of Optical Sciences is one step further. 3D, no glasses, one color – it’s all the same but now they can produce one picture in about two seconds!
That’s really nice. Project conferences can be hold virtually in realtime in the future and so for example exhaust fumes can be reduced. OK, one has to check CO2 emissions and so on which is needed to produce 3D hologram systems. But in my opinion that’s the right way and many applications are waiting for this technology.
[optics.arizona.edu: UA College of Optical Sciences]
October 3, 2010
Transparent displays
There are coming more and larger transparent displays like these ones:
That’s an interesting technology. It enables us to transfer more (visual) informations and in different ways than today. For instance we can augment the reality and thereby enhance team communication (e.g. in offices: visualize important informations of your in front sitting neighbor). Or many people around a display can see (and in the future: can interact with!?) the same data. Maybe soon one interacts with the data in the back of the display and sees his fingers interacting without covering the visualizing with his hand. And maybe … or …
September 26, 2010
Accessibility of programming software for blind people
It’s great to see that disabled persons are integrated in normal life. The video shows how a (blind)human-machine interface can be built so that the people are able to program software. (The video also shows how they are teached to do so.)
[www.siue.edu – A.M. Stefik: Dissertation (2008, PDF)]
August 21, 2010
Tactile feedback touch interfaces
A nice new technology connects the visual advantages with the tactile ones and keeps being adjustable in both aspects.
So in the future e.g. one can feel a slider (graphical element to adjust e.g. volume) and so the volume level of mobile devices or more complex elements like smilies or whole text messages without looking at it.
Until today that was a really missing feature!
August 14, 2010
Virtualization of human body (1)
In the next video a researcher is transferring human head movement data via gyrosensor to a roboter and his video data back to the human.
Is this a another new technology (of virtualization) towards alienation (robots taking over your representation in the world and therefor the public majority) and dissociation (knowing yourself | your body) as one can see in the film “Surrogates”?