she has a hot accent

kcm117

This is a technological anti-innovation.

robpruitt

As with most new technology, first you show that it is possible, then people start using it in ways you never imagined, then they refine it to make it work better for those applications and then they charge you an arm and a leg so the people that would really benefit from it can't afford it.

/cynicism

nospamsam

Dude, she was into you.

UpIrons

Well there's little point if your laptop is right there, but when it comes to PCs hooked up to TVs, it would be nice not to have to use a remote control or wireless mouse to control everything. I could see using gesture controls in that situation.

weatherman

@UpIrons: Yeah, she was totally into me. To kill me after the demo. Seriously, poor girl, she had a bad time trying to excuse the lousy recognition, but she did a great job with what was available. I would hate to demonstrate this kind of half-baked things.

Jesus Diaz

This would be great in a NOC or another place where you have huge displays that you don't necessarily want people to touch, but you need to navigate around an app.

I really only see this being useful for "really large" displays that you can be a ways back from. If you have a smaller screen, you're going to be right up on it anyway.

scrag

hmm... I wonder why she was covering the front-levels w/the folder...perhaps too shy of the .........

the_gank

@kcm117: well, not just hot, she herself was flaming hot. I wonder why the camera guy didn't zoom towards the front-levels...if u know what I mean

the_gank

When will manufacturers learn NOT to demo things that are obviously not ready?

Oh my, here come the OS, blu-ray, etc analogies....

AJ_Syrinx

I got your hand gesture right here...

dc-united

german Kirsten Dunst

I can see some use for this, as others have mentioned. And I agree this needs LOTS of work.

hnkelley

It's fun when people showcase stuff and not even they can make it work ^_^

Eruanno

at least your arm and thumb get strong from all that waiving around..

Charging_Mooses

I think this would have worked fine if you were in a place where the image behind you was static. If people are walking around behind you, it's going to interfere with the software.
I'm sure this technology works when used inside a home.

tommo

rock, paper, scissors, she wins!

curiouscomputer

I bet you had a great time in this show. Looks like most the technology doesn't work :P

tripplehelix

@tommo: Exactly! They probably tested it successfully before the convention opened, not realizing the background would get busy and interfere when the convention was opened.

Oh well, own fault.

MrThunderfield

Wow! If you want to stop it you just have to sieg heil?

Noobs-R-Us

You have to hand it to these girls. They're not only cute, they make use of their intelligence, too. And that should be commended. Then again, I live in Beverly Hills, so you don't see too much of that combo here.

As for the interface, it is yet another thing that reminds me of the late 80s Knowledge Navigator video from Apple. It's cool that someone has a working product that uses more natural, hand gestures for communication but it strikes me that, much like with languages, there isn't one universal set of hand gestures for the planet.

It will be cool to see how it plays out. Like, will there be regional gesture kits instead of language kits for operating systems, etc?

FritzLaurel

@MrThunderfield: That's not the case. We were against a white background and nobody but her or me were in front of the computer.

Jesus Diaz

I've had a toshiba laptop with the kind of all-shiny black plastic look.
I sold it (with profit though :P ) two days later.
Fingerprints get EVERYWHERE !
Also the Ati 3650 3d card in mine wasnt stron enough to play WoW decently.

Bought a HP-DV7 instead, i'm happy now :)

Good thing about these things is the sound. The harman/kardon speakers are indeed kick ass.

O and about the gesture control, needs a LOT of finetuning.
Digging the girl.

desostros

That is a really good concept... not unique or the first, of course, but at least they're making progress. I think that hand gestures could make a very efficient form of user input, once the technology is sufficiently advanced. Imagine if you could use sign language to silently dictate to your computer (well, deaf people would probably find it useful, I suppose that's one hell of a learning curve for most people). If they could make a standard, simple, easy-to-learn gesture 'language' of commands for controlling your computer, it would be so nice! Imagine, just sitting or standing in front of a big monitor, and being able to interface with it just by making motions with your hands, not even touching it. Though I bet that would be annoying for people who gesture a lot when they speak... they're browsing the internet, they get a phone call, they get really animated talking to someone and all of a sudden 2girls1cup is playing. Oops!

kzooguy

actually*

kevman90

is that Jesus in the video? Jesus actual talks like that. haha. wow never imagined that in my wet dreams.

kevman90

wow, jvc had this at CES two years ago...way to stay on top Toshiba

deadatbirth

well, I really dig the technology. Are they using two cameras to get some kind of spatial information in order to sort out the random background stuff?

yogibimbi

@UpIrons: yup, it definitely looked like it;-)

yogibimbi

It's just the first generation blues. This concept, if not Toshiba's actual product line, will certainly mature beautifully in the coming years.

Toss in the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display displayed at SIGGRAPH 2008, and a 3D display along the lines of Holografika's offerings, and we have the makings of an actual Minority Report interface.

DisposableInterloper

So, I think this is actually some pretty fabulous technology, once they get the implementation right. There are plenty of sci-fi shows/movies that I've seen that have a projected screen and you just wave your hands to adjust dials and press buttons. I don't think that's such a stretch, but they'll definitely have to get a handle on the mechanics of this whole genius thing.
Just wait. It'll be the next big thing in a few years.

munineye

It only works in the nude.

heroineworshipper

Her earrings were certainly interfering with the sensor.

Pensador

Its more like "dirty computer users touch dirtier-than-the-toilet-or-the-water keyboard and then cook". Witches in Germany are pretty friendly, but, you shouldn't test their patience.

loslosbaby

So, how wil this work when you're trying to "please yourself" when viewing adult materials?

heylookitscook

@FritzLaurel: Yeah I guess she was pretty intelligent... for a girl.

sxr7171

Don't ask me why I spent 4 hours scouring the Internet for Gesture software, but after I saw I totally wanted to try it. It occurred to me a few moments ago that I should go directly to the source, I found it and installed it, wow, its really cool. Here is the URL to Toshiba's support website where you can download "Magic Gesture"

[www.csd.toshiba.com]

I also got the face recognition software, its really cool, have a great day!

-Eddie

Eddie Starr

(lol) 10 minutes later, the novelty of gesture wore off, yeah it is neat, but very limited, I will just wait for Gesture to be streamlined into Windows 7 (if that ever happens) but I am going to keep the face recognition software, that works very well.

Eddie Starr

I think that if they made a glove that could control it more effectively than it does in its stages now it'd be more effective. Or if there wuz some kind of glove that you could put on the back of your hand instead of palm since thats what mostly gets dirty.
As of now i think they'd need more cameras to get this thing done right. If they had lets say 4-8 cameras scattered around the screen of the laptop then it'd be way better. Because you'd have one camera focusing in on different parts where the screen is facing. As well as something that will do like the lexus lighting system that follows where you're going and focus in on different objects as well as a motion sensor to active the system etc or a voice command that would activate it.

SneakerFiend

Three uses: --When nurse forgets to take their gloves off when entering your info into their online medical record filing system *yugh* --When chemist needs to turn down music before supervisor comes back into the lab; putting on a new set of gloves everytime they come in the room is suspicious *grin* --When lead cashier is sick of cleaning other cashier's fingerprint-spotted touch screens

SnehKabobward

well not professional chef, but my sister has all the recipes on her laptop so it cold be useful, needs only a gestures to scroll the page up and down.

So I volunteer for interminably test session with Helga.

ipergiorg

Looks like a great idea, just bad execution. I can actually understand the cooking idea, my mom sometimes uses the internet for recipes and this would actually be very useful to her. Her laptop is so gross!

War.Eagle