Holographic Keypads Float Into View

prostoalex writes "The New York Times tells the story of a Connecticut-based company called HoloTouch that is developing input devices that literally "float in the air". The technology will be licensed for information kiosks in New York city. Some other sample applications are available from the company's Web site. HoloTouch already managed to secure the patent on its technology."

Whatever

[ryanvm]

HoloTouch already managed to secure the patent on its technology.

Jeebus - if it's not Microsoft bashing, it's the "all patents are evil" nonsense. Is there a template for Slashdot submissions or what?

vapor

[Anonymous Coward]

it's still vaporware.. hold your horses folks. the provided images are obvious hacks.

look before leap

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

Yeah, but what if you only have one eye? You can't see a hologram with only one eye. There's a whole bag of "this is not handicap accessible" with their name on it.

Not to mention, I like command line consoles. I guess its just that old style charm. I think I prefer plain old buttons under my fingers too. Maybe you could learn to type fast on a hologram, but with no physical feedback, it seems like it would be a royal pain to type at any great speed.

Re:Still using decimal and QWERTY though.

[cmeans]

Technology like this would probably help to provide greater options for keyboard layouts. Instead of having to have a "hard" keyboard attached to the device, with tech. like this, the user could select from a list of options.

Seems like a step in the right direction to me.

Now we'll just need to get the tactile feel right :)

One good application

[Faust7]

I can't be the only one that thinks holographic keyboards would be a great idea for public computers, just so we needn't worry about the disgusting pub-funk that seems to coat most public keyboards.

Don't Deprive Your Immune System

[Boss, Pointy Haired]

We used to live in caves. Your body is perfectly capable of seeing off any nastyness you pick up of public keyboards.

To much cleanliness is just as unhealthy as too little. People that wash their hands all the time are generally ill far more often than those that feed their bodies immune system and let it develop in the way in which it is supposed to.

Tactile Feedback is important

[GillBates0]

Anybody see the lack of tactile feedback as a problem? Holograms are great for unobtrusive displays like in aircraft like the story says, but once you start interacting with it, you would expect some type of feedback.

Especially, if they plan to use this sort of thing for remote medical procedures. Imagine a doctor trying to perform a delicate surgery, without any sort of sensation of touch whatsoever.

Maybe they'll come up with force feedback gloves or something.

But could you really type on it?

[KillerHamster]

I can see some advantages to a keyboard you wouldn't have to touch, but I don't think I could use it. The feedback I get by pressing the keys is how I know that I hit the correct one and that I pressed down far enough. The feel of the keyboard is also how I know where to position my hands without looking. I would probably have to look at something like this while I type, which would slow me down drastically.

Re:sounds cool enough

[Ominous Coward]

why not? Your eyes act as two high-res cameras, so how could you see it, but a mechanical camera could not? Perhaps it wouldn't have the right dimensions through a single camera, but it wouldn't be invisible to a single camera while magically visible to a pair of cameras connected via a bit of wetware.

Nobody said it was evil

[burgburgburg]

They just pointed out that it was already patented. This isn't a ridiculous patent with an enormous amount of prior art to illustrate that it never should have been granted in the first place (AFAIK, IANAL).

Re:USPTO USPOT? USOPT? SCAM?

[frovingslosh]

It's nice to know that they issue patents for things that rightfully deserve patenting too.

Can you read the patent and figure out how the "The holographic image generator 200" works? I sure can't. Maybe I'm just dense and others can point out the invcention here, but how the hell does their supposed holographic image generator 200 work? If the purpose of a patent is to disclose how a device functions, and in doing so give the inventor a limited time monopoly on the invention in return for information that becomes public knowledge and will eventually become freely useable by all, then I think this patent falls far short of this requirement. I have serious doubts that the company even invented anything at all, it looks more to me like they hope someone else will and that they can then sue them, based on having obtained a patent without actually inventing anything or provide the public any value in return for the patent.

Re:look before leap

[loucura!]

The only problem, is security, if it's sending out a unique tone for each keypress, then to get username/password pairs, all you'll is a tape recorder, you could do it from far away too, with a uni-directional shotgun mic. That would be a bad thing.

Re:look before leap

[cheeseSource]

Not sure that's quite right. I only have one eye and I've been able to see any holos I've looked at it's that damned 3D that I can't get past....

Still, it's the tactile feel of the keyboard that would be hard to move away from.

patent shmatent

[rice_burners_suck]

How and why in the "f" word did they get to patent this "invention?" I have a serious problem with this and here is what it is: The patent system exists in order that inventors can get a temporary monopoly on their invention as incentive to tell the world how it is done, so that humanity as a whole can benefit from it long after it is no longer a viable business for the inventor. By this definition, and yes, I know that the patent system is all screwed up, shouldn't inventors at least be required to demonstrate a working, functioning, real invention before they can secure a patent on it? It is obvious that this company did not actually get this friggen thing to work. By that logic, I should be able to patent about 100 ideas that I have every day, just because they would be cool if they ever worked, but won't, because I'm not actually going to build it, and nobody else will either, until the patent expires, because I am going to charge ridiculous fees for the use of my valuable intellectual property, which doesn't exist, not only because it is simply an idea that has no physical incarnation, but also because nobody has ever built the damn thing before.

And if, by some fscked up logic, you are allowed to patent ideas that have no implementation, what's stopping all the movie producers who portrayed things like this in their movies from patenting this or any other idea seen in a futuristic movie. Hey, I got one... How 'bout patenting cyborgs? Hmmm... Good deal.

Re:Don't Deprive Your Immune System

[JourneymanMereel]

There's a difference between bolstering your immune system and sticking your fingers into a big pile of dog-doo. There are plenty of things I'd rather not touch.

Does the technology exist?

[__aagmrb7289]

Well, the article says it is being done by the Airforce, on heads up displays, right? If this is so, then yes, it can be done. As to a copyright, well, the HUD thing is prior art, right?

Just some thoughts

Re:real, or just killing real invention?

[Suidae]

Actually, if you read the article, it describes how they take a standard film based hologram and mount it on a piece of clear plastic and then put what amounts to an IR grid above it to detect finger placement.

This is NOT real-time holography, or 'floating in mid-air with no box behind it' holography (as the images on the website show). There is one image of they guys laptop with the device attached.

Its still a cool idea because it would be completely spill proof and have no mechanical wear. I can see something like this being popular in industrial applications where component wear or material spills could be an issue. And it should be reasonably cheap too, because its basicly a piece of plexiglass with some IR LEDs and sensors.

"High Resolution Photos"?

[JoeGee]

From their site:

"To obtain high-resolution photos of HoloTouch in action, visit http://www.holotouch.biz/pressroom.htm."

The images on that page aren't even cleverly disguised fakes. This is Pixelon [com.com] repackaged. Go to the LED site, http://www.3dtv.tv/ [3dtv.tv] referenced from their licensee's site. We get more creative imagery. Where's a real working product [actuality-systems.com], again?

Re:But could you really type on it?

[cvas]

I understand the hesitancy, but at the same time is this not a something of a Luddite view? A new technology comes along, it could replace a current one, but you don't see how it could be possible or how anyone would be able to work with it. How did we move from the chisel to the pen? The pen to the keyboard? We adapted.

Maybe your hand position determines the home point of the keyboard and the hologram moves with you so you don't need to look or reposition your hands. Or I'm sure there are other ways around the loss of tactile feedback. Aural? Visual? Electrode on your scrotum?

So to your question of: "But could you really type on it?" Yes, I think you could. You may not hit 100wpm on your first day, but how fast were you when you started typing? When you picked up a pen the first time?

Executive summary (for the clueless 99% of /.-ers)

[danila]

It seems that most people do not understand what the article is about (or they haven't read). Most of the comments here are either speculations about the terrible patent system or unreserved admiration of this super-technology. Here is the gist of it all.

A usual film hologram (like those that have been around since 1940s [holophile.com]) is made and placed somewhere.

Light shines on the hologram, producing a 3D image (you have seen it many times).

The image of the keypad is seen in front of the hologram (no, it doesn't float in the air, you have to look at the hologram to see it).

Infrared sensors (like those in the projection keyboards [slashdot.org]) detect the movement of your fingers.

The "key-press" is sent to the computer.

The inventors explain very well what this keyboard is. It is not the keyboard [agwright.com] from Minority Report. It is a keyboard to be used in places where you don't want to actually touch surfaces for one reason [google.com] or another [google.com].

This is an interesting invention that might prove useful in some areas.

There is nothing bad about the patent. Although inventors don't need to have a working model to get the patent (for 2 hundreds years already), this company has a working prototype [nytimes.com] (seen at the top of the article in NYT).

The media overstates the importance of this technology a bit.

The company has good PR manager.