AquaTop Display - A True Immersive Interface

[cprise]

Link to article:
http://www.i-programmer.info/news/194-kinect/6230-aquatop-display-a-true-immersive-interface.html

This is another simple idea with results that go well beyond what you might expect. Take a tub of cloudy water, a projector, a Kinect to sense objects on its surface and you have the first "immersive" interface - literally. You can place your hands in the water and play with the virtual objects projected onto it. See it!



If you put some bath salts in a tub of water the result is a milky liquid, which makes a really good projection surface - so why not project something on to it. This is what the team at Tokyo's University of Electro-Communications Koike Laboratory and the results are more impressive than you might expect.

[NJCher]

1. entertaining

I must say, that was very entertaining and well worth the time it took to watch.

They discuss playing violent video games with this technology and in fact seem to be having a lot of fun doing it. I wonder, however, if the effect of water will run counter to a shooting game. Water is known for its peaceful, soothing effect--not exactly a prescription for aggression.


Cher

[cprise]

3. The way they automatically reached for the shoot'em'up genre

crossed my mind, too. But I hadn't considered whether the water would structurally undermine the inclination to violent games.

OTOH, seeing developmentally delayed knaves turn into prunes might not be such a bad thing...

[joanbarnes]

2. Water is too precious, a rare and finite resource being destroyed by agriculture and fracking.

We cannot spare any water for gaming.

[Plucketeer]

4. The future comes at us

from unforseen quadrants. If we survive ourselves, it'll be a wondrous world by the turn of the next century.