According to a recent post on Joystiq, Massachussets Institute of Technology grad student Robert Wang and professor Jovan Popović have devised a system that makes Move, Natal and the Wii look look both imprecise and overpriced.
With a total equipment cost of around $30 (~$25 for a basic webcam and $1-$5 for the Lycra gloves) the setup could bring you that much closer to reenacting everyone's favorite scene from Minority Report. In fact, the original article even mentions that in the subtitle of the article. Apparently the nerds are taking over (author's note: w007!).
The core of this system is the software design...and lots of RAM. Rather than do real time translation of the hand position into a rendered image, the software simply checks the position against a database of hand positions and renders the corresponding image. While this simplifies things on the processor side considerably, the necessary database requires several hundred MB of space in RAM.
Although the RAM requirement isn't an issue for most desktops, it could be a problem for more portable devices. I raise this issue because I immediately thought of something after watching the following demonstration video:
Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Heavy Rain. More specifically, the Added Reality Interface (ARI) used by FBI agent Norman Jayden.
See what I mean. Also, did anyone else notice a possible Massachusetts accent in Mr. Jayden's voice? Interesting indeed. On a related note, I call dibs on any patents that combine a webcam and LCD glasses into a single device. Especially if it's for the iPod/Phone. Dibs works on the internet, right?
