Wow that's pretty f*cking cool

http://www.io2technology.com/

I want one. Now. Can you imagine playing Starcraft with your hands instead of the mouse and keyboard? Oiiii!

 

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Yeah, but the implementation they have there... well... sucks.

Besides spitting particulates into your room, it's actually just a 2D screen floating in the air (although their mocked-up pictures make it look 3d). IE: The screen doesn't actually have depth. As such, it acts exactly just like a 2D touch screen... although a touch screen floating in air.

 

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I need to see it to believe... :bugeye:

 

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If it's just displaying on bits of water vapor I imagine that it'd be hard to get a very clear picture out of this thing. and like persol said, it's not going to be 3D like they try to show on their website, just another flat 2D image like any other monitor. Still being able to just touch a watervapor screen and have it respond to you is a pretty cool idea.

I imagine that it'd make a room pretty humid after a while, too, wonder how much water this thing puts out and if it could start to interfear with your keyboard and mouse and all that.

 

It's not water vapor... but same idea.

 

how I wish someone's gonna copy this thread to Science cathegory......
There are some scientific questions I have regarding to that...

 

Hey man just ask them.

 

Thanks

1) How is the 'exact process' of 'air coloring' applied here? The website explains some bit, but some mysteries remains...
2) Now that touch-screen idea is just confusing.... Actually is the projection 2D or 3D? In either cases, wouldn't the edges (top edges particularly) fade because of the distance from the device? And if it's 3D, wouldn't it cause problem if the object that needs to be clicked lies in the center of the image?

Thanks(again....)

 

Originally posted by curioucity
1) How is the 'exact process' of 'air coloring' applied here? The website explains some bit, but some mysteries remains...
It shoots out small beads of some liquid (not water) into the air. This forms a 'screen' of vapor. A video projector is then pointed at these beads, and the image appears to float... but is really being reflected off of the vapor/beads.

2) Now that touch-screen idea is just confusing.... Actually is the projection 2D or 3D?
2D Projection.

In either cases, wouldn't the edges (top edges particularly) fade because of the distance from the device?
The top edge is probably a couple feet up. They only appear to use about the bottom foot. Regardless, it has no more fade then the video projector does.

And if it's 3D, wouldn't it cause problem if the object that needs to be clicked lies in the center of the image?
Well, it's 2D... problem solved

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Actually, the technology for this touch screen isn't new either. Most likely just 2 wide view IR detectors.

Thanks(again....) [/B][/QUOTE]

 

I read this idea in one of the Foundation Books I think.But its great anyway.


bye!

 

Persol, thanks

BTW, I forgot to ask this:
Since the 'screen' is actually vapor layer, how is the process of the touch-screen? Specifically, is there any 'extra' device to detect the change of vapor (due to the touch)?
Oh, also, wouldn't it cause problem to position the projectors such that the image is still easy to see (easy to shoulders for example), or does this technology use two or more projectors?

Thanks

 

hey, it is a nice picture though.....

 

most likely there is a pair of radar-type or laser sensors which tells if the plane of the screen is broken, and if so, at what X,Y point on the display it was broken. most likely not attached to the display mechanism (as detecting changes in vapor pressure would be near-impossible)

 

And would the detection technology would be like the 'laser-security' system?

 

you mean like the laser-beam across the hall security systems in movies? yeah, sort of like that I bet, but not single beams, but a fan-shaped thin feild oriented on a 2-d plain. The two emitters could be on the far sides of the display base, pointing such that they cover a 90 degree angle between parrellel to ground and perpendicular to ground orientations. then they could take any reflection of the beams, and eliminate any reflection from the display medium (just like a radar gun works, but taking the frequency shift of the particle into account), and just figure out the orientation based on triangulating between the two emitters and the retrun particle angles, etc.

The beans may have to be set up such that the frequency of the EM particles emitted will be slightly different as the angle emitted changes (ie parrallel to the ground (angle 0) will be emitted at frequency x, angle 0.5 will be frequency x+.5) - that will allow you to tell the original angle the particle was shot out at, based on the particle frequency. All the particles recieved will be shifted a certain amount based on the material they reflect off of. This shift can then be normalised based on an id of the material, and the location can be found (as all three angles and the lenth of the bottom of the triangle will be known, the xy position can be figured out pretty easily).

 

I wonder how well this thing would work in a room with strong air currents, caused by say a Air Conditioning or the like. . .

 

Originally posted by curioucity
Since the 'screen' is actually vapor layer, how is the process of the touch-screen? Specifically, is there any 'extra' device to detect the change of vapor (due to the touch)?
It's two infrared sensors.... just like the add on touch screen panels for normal monitors. It's an off the shelf item, and would be easy to put in.

Oh, also, wouldn't it cause problem to position the projectors such that the image is still easy to see (easy to shoulders for example), or does this technology use two or more projectors?
Not sure what you mean. Here's a diagram of how the projector thing would work. Note that the projector is at a very bad angle, so some image processing would have to happen so that the image isn't skewed. This generates an image that is easy to see from anywhere you can see the vapor. I'm not sure what you mean by 'easy to shoulders'.

 

I get the picture, thanks
I thought that probably 2 projectors are to be placed behind the viewer, one on the right, one on the left.............. hah hah....
About that easy to shoulders, sorry for confusiong you... I was actually concerned with the angle formed by the 'frontal part of the screen' and horizontal plane.. If it's less than about 80, it may hurt one's shoulders to look down...

 

Laminar flow doesn't disrupt very easily. It's not like steam rising from a pot. This vapor is 'organized' to form an aerodynamic plane which kinda 'supports itself'.

 

Id really like to see this thing working live but the coolness factor is definitely a 10, on the other hand the picture quality (compared to a crt display for example) looks terrible. Why not just get a flat screen? Until they can produce images that aren't translucent or are 3d i cant really see this tech going beyond being a snazzy novelty.

Still, very cool though.