I want to interact with my computer like in Minority Report

You have to admit that being able to interact with a computer just by waving your hands around would be awesome, and the truth is that the technology to accomplish such a feat is already preparing to reach the market. Traditionally, people interact with their computers using a keyboard and/or a mouse. We've been using these same interfaces since the first personal computers and not much has changed since. Sure, now we have touchpads for our laptops and scroll wheels for some mice and some are even wireless now, but otherwise, not much has changed. Even a joystick used for computer games is not that much different from a mouse. It can control direction in a two-dimensional plane and has a buttons to execute simple commands.

There are several different types of new interaction hardware reaching the market today. The most commonly know is the multi-point touchscreen that has been incorporated into the iPhone and several other handheld devices. These small touch screens work by monitoring the change in electric current flowing through the screen. Anything touching, or even approaching, the screen alters the way in which current flows through it, and these changes are interpretted as commands to be given to the device. However, in order to have the same multi-point interface for larger surfaces, an entirely new set of technologies had to be explored.

Microsoft has successfully brought their product, the Surface to realization. The Surface is essentially a table size screen that can handle multiple touch commands. However, the technology behind the Surface requires quite a bit of space. In order to take in the touches made on the screen, a wide-angle camera has to place about 3-4 feet infront of or behind the screen in order to capture the inputs. Infrared light is shone onto the screen and touches create shadows that the camera captures.

Another similar technology is currently being investigated at NYU. It uses total internal frustration in order to collect information instead of a projector. shining infrared light through the side of a piece of translucent acryllic creates and even field of light in the screen. Touches to the screen create refraction patterns in the screen and a camera set behind the screen takes in these patterns so that they can be interpretted into commands. Here's a link to a video of their screen (I want one!): http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/

I plan to post updates soon on other emerging interface technologies. If you have any requests for future topics, feel free to ask.

It's alive! Alive, I tell you! ALIVE!

Recently I've been seeing ads for this plant-turned-toy called "The TickleMe Plant". I ran into several instances where people mentioned how "interesting and fun!" it was, and I was curious. Here's the scoop: it's a plant, one that is, interestingly, usually considered a weed, that reacts to different stimuli- aka, if you touch it, it freaks out. Actually, if you touch it, heat it, or any-other-number-of-things it, it reacts. Here's a video of it in action (it's long, you don't have to watch all of it, the interesting parts are at the beginning, from 1:58 to 2:18, and at 3:13):



Having seen that and the ads on the "TickleMe Plant" website, I was curious enough about how and why this happens to do some research. As it turns out, according to wikipedia, the plant has two types of movement- nyctinastic, meaning it closes at sunset and reopens at sunrise, and seismonastic, meaning the response to stimulus and transmission of that stimulus (if you tap a leaf, it AND the leaves around it close).

The really interesting question is WHY DOES THIS PLANT DO THIS WEIRD STUFF?
The answer? I'm not sure. And for all the research I've done, I haven't been able to find much out. It's not to capture prey, like a venus fly trap, and not to spread seeds or pollen, like impatiens. I will keep looking for an answer to this question, but I don't know if I'll find one.

Another interesting question is HOW do the leaves drop as quickly as they do? It's all about pressure. When stimulated, a "strategically-situated cell" releases whatever pressure it had built up, and the leaves droop. The pressure that is built up and let go repeatedly is created through the passage of water into and out of the cell- water pressure!

I'm tempted to get one of these plants, branded as "Tickle Me Plants", and if I do I will keep you all updated with photos! I don't quite trust my green thumb, though...