Here’s a cool project out of the Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory: a touch-free, in-air typing interface for mobile devices. Using a custom-built parallel image processing board, they are able to track objects in 3d using a single camera. It looks like interesting technology, I hope it comes to fruition! [via theo's gallimaufry]
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Rumors are that Apple will have this in their upcoming tablet application which should be shown to the public on Jan 27th. Apple has patented a similar technology. See: http://www.macrumors.com/2010/01/05/apple-patent-application-points-to-3d-multi-touch-manipulation/
I think these are two different technologies. The university group is building camera-based system to track the position of your finger in real time, while Apple is using a conventional touchpad to manipulate 3d representations of objects on a screen.
the guys should look into using Z-Cams… the depth layer would make digit ID easier, and could ignore everything ouside of the same depth plane as the tracked object.
Cheap webcams that report per-pixel depth are a game changer in computer imaging – look out for it this year
This seems very similar to a computer used in a Harry Harrison novel –possibly a Stainless Steel Rat book — at least 20 – 25 years ago.
It seemed like a great idea when I read it back then and it’s amazing to see it happen in real life.
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