Microsoft showed off a “Write in the Air” system developed in China. You can write with a gyro controller or in thin air, using a camera. Is it next for the Xbox?

You can’t help but notice the giant Xbox logo there on the screen, and the researcher I talked to said that it would be a great system for the Xbox or for Microsoft interactive TV. Still, when I pressed him, he said he didn’t know of any immediate plans. Whatever, it makes sense, except maybe the part where he grabs an orange and uses it as a stylus.

If the rumours are true, the orange makes a lot more sense now, don’t it? Not that I’m any less skeptical of these kind of controls actually working for gamers in the real world. PSEye, anyone? [Giz@Microsoft TechFest]

A team from RWTH Aachen University in Germany and UC San Diego have been working together to develop Silicone Illuminated Active Peripherals, or “SLAP Widgets” to bring physical controls to multitouch in the form of plastic and silicone objects. It’s kind of a middle ground between physical and virtual devices.

SLAP widgets are transparent. This means we can always show the current labelling using the table’s rear projection underneath the widget. For example, we can change the labels on our keyboard from normal characters to shortcut commands when the modifier key is held down. This makes it easier to use command shortcuts and other special keyboard mappings.

Each SLAP widget, like a keypad for example, has visual markers on its bottom side. When put onto a table, the markers are registered by the table using a technique called Diffuse Illumination, or DI.

When SLAP widgets are pressed like for example the keypad, keyboard, and knob, however, there is no additional marker to detect. Instead, a different technique called FTIR, or frustrated total internal reflection, is used: IR light fed sideways into the tabletop stays inside the acrylic surface until disturbed by touch. The camera beneath the table detects the point of touch from the scattered IR light.

As you will see in the video from the project webpage, the technology is pretty damn cool—although, to me, having actual, physical peripherals in any form still seems like a step backwards. [Project Page via Core77]

Inventor Kazuhiro Taniguchi is pretty stoked about the technology, but seems unable to come up with applications that aren’t completely hilarious. For example, he tells Physorg:

You will be able to turn on room lights or swing your washing machine into action with a quick twitch of your mouth… An iPod can start or stop music when the wearer sticks his tongue out, like in the famous Einstein picture. If he opens his eyes wide, the machine skips to the next tune. A wink with the right eye makes it go back.

In other words, skipping more than a track or two will be hard, unless you have epilepsy. Anyway, Apple, please keep me entertained on the bus for the next five years—include this as standard with all iPods, stat. [Physorg]

Hacked Gadgets uncovered this device, which is built from scratch by an Japanese engineer calling himself ChaN. The MP3 player uses a three-axis accelerometer, enabling it to sense tilt, inclination and shock. The device features no buttons, and has a SD card slot, and a small, 2.1w speaker for playback. Plus it has an audio jack to attach a second speaker.

If you turn the player so that the speaker is face down, it turns off; lift the speaker side off the table and it back on. If you tap one of the corners against the table, it will skip forward a track. Tapping the corner on the opposite side will make it skip back a track.

You can also roll it on to its sides horizontally adjacent to the speaker to increase or decrease volume. Obviously, for some of these controls, buttons seem easier, but it’s a cool demonstration of what you can do with simple technology and a good idea. [ELM via Hacked Gadgets via Dvice]

Everything is controlled using a web page, which is connected to the huge setup using X10 power control systems. Alek Komarnitsky says that this year he’s using wind energy too, helping with the power demands this thing requires. The system will be online until January 1st between 5:00PM to 10:00PM (GMT -7).

All is completely free, but Alek does it for a good cause, not just to showing us who cool he is and how puny we and our ACME instant tree-in-a-pizza-box are. If you like the show, consider donating some money to the University of Maryland Centre for Celiac Research. [Komar]

Available now as a free universal binary, FluidTunes is a simple creature; despite what looks to be a solid gesture recognition engine, it can only control iTunes, and only in a specific Coverflow mode. Still, if all you want to do is indulge your moderately lame futuristic interface fantasy for a few minutes, well, FluidTunes can probably grant you that. [Cult of Mac]