What I Learned: Multitouch goes 3D

What I learned this week … came from
a link posted by someone I follow on Twitter.
I don’t have a lot to go on with this one because the site is in
French and the information on it is a bit scarce, but the video is
worth watching. What I find intriguing is the potential for much
more natural user interfaces. As 3D information becomes a
much more common form of business data (particularly for
new product development) it will be interesting to see the ways in
which people - both experienced users and inexperienced users
- will interact with the digital objects. I believe the key -
and what you will see in the video - is replicating the way
we experience and interact with the physical world. After
all, we start learning how to interact with the physical world from
birth (and perhaps sooner).

Overview

The video appears to be based on research and a prototype to
manipulate 3D images via a 3D object - a cube. The really
interesting part is that it includes “multitouch” in a 3D
context. For those not familiar with the term, the
best way to explain multitouch is to look at an iPhone. Intuitive
actions like sliding your finger, or pinching an item, or
stretching an item mean something different than just touching an
item like a standard touch screen. In essence, it incorporates
motion and gestures (including those with multiple fingers touching
the screen) in the user interface. There are some more
interesting tidbits on multitouch in
Wikipedia. It offers a lot in regards to making the
interaction much more like the real world. But - and here is where
I learned something - people are already thinking about how to
move multitouch interaction from a flat screen to
3D. What an opportunity!

Note: According to the site, this is research from a company
called Immersion. Their research is based on an iliGHT (for
Gesture, Hand, Touch) project. The site is in French and I am using
a Google translation, so I hope that is accurate and welcome them
to provide more information.

Relevant Past Discussion and Perspective
Let’s face it, we live in a 3D world. But we work on 2D paper and
computer screens. But thanks to some really interesting graphical
applications (and a lot of available computing power) the virtual
world is moving closer and closer to looking like reality. In a
past post I pointed in a post titled Design
Collaboration on the Star Trek HoloDeck? which was a step in
that direction. I believe that as more companies reach out to
non-Engineers, the ability to interact with 3D intuitively
will become more important. Maybe this device is a step in
that direction? Could we all have a floating cube on our next
Blackberry or iPhone that allows us to manipulate 3D?

Implications for Manufacturers?
The short term implication for manufacturing are probably
small. But the longer term ability to change the interface to 3D
offers two potentials:

• Increase engineering efficiency - maybe this
  is the next interface for an engineer with their CAD tools? 3D
  pointers (mice, etc.) are already available, but require an
  investment in time to get over the learning curve. Maybe this is a
  part of the next generation CAD interface?
• Increase collaboration around 3D - perhaps we
  let customers interact with our products (or digital
  prototypes of our products) virtually to see how they react to
  them, allowing them to move it with their hands?

Less dedicated users may be the first
application for this, given that a heads-down CAD
user will likely value capability over an intuitive
interface. This is an interesting concept if nothing
else. I even saw one experimental device that offered tactile
sensation (touch) by transmitting pressure from an object remotely.
I can’t offer you an immediate action on how to incorporate this in
your daily work (or more importantly how to profit from it), but at
least this is worth thinking about for the future. And if nothing
else, it’s pretty cool.

So that is what I learned this week, I hope you found it
interesting. Let me know what you think.