Science fiction becomes a reality

Usually, science-fiction's technology used in movies are just out from our imagination, and we can hardly believe that it could be real. For example, in Monirity Report filmed by Steven Spielberg in 2002, they used screens in which we can intercact directly from fringers, by putting special gloves on the two hands. The police in the movie used this technology to see through future, come back in the past, pick up parts of images and translate them to another screen etc... only by the action of fingers. But now, it became a reality.

In fact, a compagy called Oblong industries situated in Los Angeles developped this technology. It can be controlled from a PC, and it makes it very versatile. Once we projected the image on a screen, we can get entire control of the actions. Basically, it is an interactive way of remplacing the good old mouse, firstly created by Apple in 1987 with the Macintosh II. The argument used is that anything is more performant and accurate than our hands. This from this statement that the developpers began to work on.

Imagine that, a child wants to draw on a computer with a mouse. Even for us, it difficult, even if interactive pencils have been invented. It is though hard to create something which sticks to our mind. And by this technology, the same child can draw on a screen, with his hands, the tree or the bird he imagined in his head. But it can be used in many others situation. For exemple in universities, to a give presentation. It can be used in the army, to show maps, lands, battle fields, and to indicate where planes could land, only with the fingers. The process is easy to grasp and it gets quicker than using a simple mouse. As it accurate, surgeons can use it to explore a part of the patient and identifie precisely where to operate.

But Oblong industries wants to go further. The company has the ambition to introduce this technology into everyday life. They are developping the system in a reduced format, so it can be used by everyone, in fonction of what we want to do on it. It might be available in two years...

To be impressed, please watch the videos on the article.