Button Button

Click On This, Drag That

While navigating my browser a moment ago I realized how used to pushing buttons on my computer I had gotten. It is bad enough with the mouse and with the track pad on my MacBook I feel even more like I am just moving my finger on the screen. I fully realize there are tablet PCs, iPhones, Ipod touch, PDA, and other devices with touch screens which are even more directly tactile for pressing and moving things in a virtual environment. I am not even going to get into the VR Visors, helmets, gloves, globes¹, touch tables, and performance art touch screens or the projected interaction advertising systems where you can touch an image projected on floor or wall... or the projected keyboards and screens experimented with that project keyboard and screen on any actual desk surface or tabletop. ...or did I just get into them?

The thing is we have gotten very used to manipulating virtual items. We are used to on-screen controls for things like the VCR and DVD or the Cable-box or... Even the monitors we use most often have on-screen controls even if not touch screen.

Have you ever wanted to use your remote control like a mouse on your TV screen to move things around, like to move a TV logo out of the way so you could read the important subtitle it is blocking? Perhaps you can do it right now and if not you might be able to in future. I am just making an observation about how some of the more technologically comfortable of us might be getting very comfortable with the idea of pushing virtual buttons on a web page or other piece of software. I really look forward to having an electronic desk top... not a desktop on my monitor, but a monitor surface as my desk's desk top. Of course there will be the issue of having real objects placed on top of the virtual objects and I would imagine coasters with felt bottoms would be a must. ...or coffee Verboten! Personally I think any tabletop surface intended for touchscreen monitor use, other than something for the drafts man or equivalent should be designed to cope with things like beverage or spaghetti spills.

...hmm I would imagine that a really good touch screen desk would work around things put on it. Can you imagine your information doing a word wrap around the coffee cup sitting on the desk at the moment so that none of the words end up under the cup? Well, maybe not, but the desktop software would avoid place documents under lamps or stacks of paper if possible... I can imagine the warning message:

*** Warning Desktop Is Dangerously Covered Some Documents Might Be Hidden Please Clean Desk ***

I am sure they could use one of the trademark "you done something naughty" Windows sounds for it.

Later!
~ Darrell

118.

__________
¹ I wrote about a virtual reality globe the Virtusphere July 20 2008.

Hamster Ball to the Recue! - Virtusphere

Something New For Virtual Reality -- A People Ball!

Actually it looks pretty cool -- I mean I haven't seen it in person and haven't really even seen a video of it in action but the concept and stills I see give me a good idea of what it is about.

The user appears to be in a large sphere -- large enough that his shoulders or chest appear to be at the centre of the sphere as he stands in the middle. There are two versions on VIRTUSPHERE's web page, one sphere looks like it is made of a combination of slightly domed transparent plastic pentagons and hexagons, (image to right -- image from virtusphere) the other sphere appears to be made of a perforated metal mesh.(image to left -- image from virtusphere)

I might think the metal mesh one is intended for the military clients they are seeking -- that is backed by the filename, "VS_mil11-218x264.jpg". Actually it makes me think of my friends who play "Halo" -- not that they dress that way, just that I think that the pictures of the characters I think look a bit like that.

Watching the video of the Virtusphere in operation they look like they take a few moments to get used to. I remember trying to walk in that rotating cylinder in the "Funhouse" at the Calgary Stampede Fairground Midway and working to keep my footing and at that young age failing -- but it looks like it doesn't take very long at all. I only see one or two stumbles in the very beginning. Looking at the page with the videos and photos with the captions I take it that the transparent plastic sphere really is just for "show" and the metal sphere is the actual working model.

On their FAQ page I note in answer to the question -- "Q: Have you sold any?":

A: VirtuSphere has sold products and services to the Office of Naval Research, Intel Corporation, Moscow City Government’s Tourism Office, TatNeft Oil, Moscow 2012 Olympic Bid Committee and a number of other fine customers. VirtuSphere systems have been delivered to the Naval Research Lab/U.S. Marine Corp's VIRTE program, the Museum of Communications and University of Telecommunications, and the University of Washington, among others. 18 VirtuSphere systems have been built. We have received numerous RFPs and are working with interested parties in different parts of Europe, Asia, America, and the Middle East.

Now I don't see that too many gamers are going to jump and buy them for their game centres at home. Even if they had the room for an 8.5 - 10 foot sphere in their living room -- I think it is a bit bigger than the average pool table. (joking). I think it would be fun... they say they are the first step towards a "Star Trek Holodeck"... though I still remember my experiences with the Fun house tunnel...

Later!
~ Darrell

94.