With its g-speak software, Oblong Industries claims it is making the first new innovations in operating system design since 1984, when Apple’s Macintosh introduced the mass market to a mouse and windows based operating system.
However, as the company notes, these days pixels are cheap, processing power is even cheaper, and data-sets are massive. The g-speak spatial operating environment (SOE) is designed to make use of the first two, to allow us to more easily manipulate the latter.
A combination of gestural i/o, recombinant networking and real-world pixel outputs is allowing their customers to develop 3D user interfaces, build multi-user collaborative environments and integrate large screens and multiple computers into room-scale working environments.The system of intra-red sensors and cameras allows the software to track finger and hand movements with an accuracy of 0.1mm at 100Hz, allowing the user to point with pixel by pixel accuracy.The system is totally display agnostic, it has been demonstrated in cave environments, simple video walls, and with various input options including touch components and the gesture tools. Advanced visualisation applications must be absolutely key for such technology, and Oblong already has systems running in partnership with Oil & Gas companies, as well as financial institutions.Below are a couple of video’s demonstrating the technology. Firstly is Tamper, which was a concept for video editing using gestures.
Secondly, here’s a YouTube video of the company’s John Underkoffler presenting at the 2010 TED conference. Watch it, and you’ll discover why the company’s technology looks annoyingly familiar!