Tuesday, 2 July 2013 00:00
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Reuters (Tokyo): The days of trying to locate a misplaced smartphone or having to use a mouse or conventional keyboard may be numbered.
According to Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa of the University of Tokyo, interactive projection technology could replace current mobile devices in indoor settings. He sees a day when a cell phone will take the form of a projection on your hand or any other surface.
“I think it will be such that we could just open our palms and that can become the smartphone or we could even be notified ‘you have mail’ just by stretching out our arms in the near future,”said Ishikawa, whose research has centred around tracking technology for the past several years.
The system comprises motion detectors and a tracking system that uses high speed computer vision and rotational mirrors to lock onto a designated target, like the palm of a hand. A projector then beams images onto the target, following it wherever it moves.
“The technology is based on high-speed motion tracking which is about tracking the world faster than the human eye can. By doing that, humans won’t even know they are being assisted by technology,” Ishikawa said.
The computer will not only keep a keypad in position, it will sense and track finger movement on individual numbers and dial them for you.
But Ishikawa also wants people to actually feel the projections. So he fitted the system with oscillators that beam ultrasonic waves along with the projected image. The waves generate pressure that create a sense of touch. Ishikawa says touching the projected screen feels similar to the tactile sensation people feel when pressing buttons on a smartphone screen.
Ishikawa says the technology can track a moving object every two milliseconds.
“The calculations are done so seamlessly that humans don’t even realise that they are being helped so we don’t feel that anything is out of place. Through this, I think humans will be able to use technology comfortably from now on,” said Ishikawa.
The research team is now focused on bringing the system out of the lab and into the real world, with the hopes of developing a commercial product within a decade.
Ishikawa, whose other inventions include a rock-paper-scissors machine which never losses and a table-tennis ball tracking machine for game analysis, says he sees a future where we acquire information by manipulating the air around us.
