If you think that Microsoft's journey into the development of natural user interfaces has stopped with the availability of Surface, then think again. The Redmond company is hard at work in a collaboration with Mitsubishi Research to produce LucidTouch.
Speaking at the Financial Analyst Meeting 2007 in July, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, underscored the fact the upcoming 10 years in computing evolution will be focused – among other things – on developing natural user interfaces. A natural UI is of course designed to scrape the products that have become traditionally associated with the interaction model between humans and computers such as the keyboard or the mouse. The upcoming steps in computing technology will bring a range of innovations.
"The one that's perhaps not as fully appreciated as some of the others: natural user interface," Gates stated. "This is the idea that just typing and using the mouse is only one of the ways that we'll interact with these machines. The arrival of cheap cameras with great software, the ability with the pen to write on a surface, have that be recognized; the ability to recognize speech—those are going to come into the experience, and those are central to allowing computing to be pervasive. (...) Natural user interface—you're actually seeing a bit of this in Microsoft products and other products," Gates added referring to Microsoft Surface, but also to the iPhone from Apple and the Nintendo Wii.
But in addition to Surface, Microsoft is working on other projects designed to deliver natural interfaces in the hands of the users. Just take a look at the video embedded at the bottom in order to make an idea of what LucidTouch is all about. Of course, currently, LucidTouch is nothing more than a prototype, and it is still a long way away from being integrated into a marketable and commercial product. Essentially, LucidTouch is a natural user interface meant for transparent mobile devices allowing the users to use multiple points of contact in order to interact with the product. Because of the pseudo-transparency mechanisms, users are able to use all 10 fingers simultaneously, as the back touch pad comes with multi-touch input capabilities.
"Touch is a compelling input modality for interactive devices; however, touch input on the small screen of a mobile device is problematic because a user’s fingers occlude the graphical elements he wishes to work with. LucidTouch is a mobile device that addresses this limitation by allowing the user to control the application by touching the back of the device. The key to making this usable is what we call pseudo-transparency: by overlaying an image of the user’s hands onto the screen, we create the illusion of the mobile device itself being semitransparent," revealed Microsoft researcher Patrick Baudisch.
nah i would find this annoying and clumbersome. i think i will stick to my stylus
thankyou!!
well /i think
By bagel on 24.08.2007 - 18:08
this device seems stupid
useless
By kas on 24.08.2007 - 18:08
it is a mobile device, but you see the camera behind? someone normal would never
walk with this somewhere.. this think looks so stupid
Are you dumb?
By not a moron on 24.08.2007 - 19:08
it's a fu.cking prototype you dumb asses.
why are you so stupid? did
something smack your brain out of your head?
Atari
By TatesMan on 24.08.2007 - 19:08
that device reminds me of atari's graphics and i think it looks so stupid
yeah.....
By sower on 24.08.2007 - 19:08
maybe in the future that thing will kick ass!!!
so lets wait and see what
happens.....
come on " not a moron "
By paul3100 on 24.08.2007 - 20:08
" it's a fu.cking prototype you dumb asses.
why are you so stupid? did
something smack your brain out of your head? "
no need for that here mate, we
are all nice people here and all deserve respect! and everyone is entitled to there
opinion as long as its expressed in the proper manor.
the phone looks good
but with apple on the badge ill give it a miss! remember the trouble with the first ipods
and there dodgy batterys?
Good concept
By Jordan on 25.08.2007 - 00:08
i think this could be a very good concept, it just needs further development.
for those here who are complaining about how bad this thing looks, remember: it's a
prototype!
with future development, maybe it'll look great, maybe it'll
become a those must-have gadget?
only time will tell...
brave new world
By DCRJ on 25.08.2007 - 03:08
it's a brave new world guys , you just have to accept the inevitable...even columbus was
called stupid when he said the world isn't flat
good idea
By kj` on 25.08.2007 - 12:08
i think its a very good idea and would work very well obviously there will not be a
camera sticking way out in a final version as was mentioned on the video if you turned the
sound on if you had a pressure sensitive touch screen then i would see no need for
the cameras as you could have it show where your fingers are when lightly pressing and
then actually interact when you press a bit harder
no way....
By fabianX on 25.08.2007 - 16:08
what the hell...!!! i looks very unuseful and it looks soo stupid. microsoft is becaming
stupid too.
yet another useless news from Marius Oiaga
By samic on 25.08.2007 - 20:08
am i seeing a patten here? this time the news has completely nothing to do with aero.
this guy is losing creditability fast.
fabianX do you have no life?
By hitawg on 25.08.2007 - 22:08
it seems like you spam every single page with your microsoft hating, how about turn
yourself around and su.ck on your own asshole.
with a name like fabianx i can
see that all the guys like to fu.ck your hole too.
hitawg do you have no life?
By your_answer on 26.08.2007 - 07:08
it seems like you spam every single page with your microsoft hating, how about turn
yourself around and su.ck on your own asshole.
with a name like hitawg i can
see that all the guys like to fu.ck your hole too.
ever thought he randomly typed that name?
By vahnju on 26.08.2007 - 19:08
well? no?
i am guessing your fabianx again, how about you go and su.ck your
hole like i said before you little pussy.
F.uck
By Hacker?pcs on 27.08.2007 - 13:08
what the f.uck? what has aero to do with a mobile phone? c'mon! aero can be compared
only with beryl or anything alse like this. lucidtouch can be compared with iphone or
anything else
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Lucid Touch
By User32 on 24.08.2007 - 17:08