Aucbvax.2345
fa.works
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!works
Sat Jul 18 04:25:45 1981
mice,balls,touch-plates,pens.
>From MINSKY@MIT-ML Sat Jul 18 04:18:29 1981
I feel that the pen-mouse-ball discussion is reactionary --
though many of the ideas are realistic and practical. But all of
them look back to non-interactive sensors of the past. Suppose
the terminal could SEE the user -- using a couple of little
vision-boxes. Then (i) it could watch your hands. You could
point to your icons on the screen in a really natural way. A
tracking cross would permit higher resolution, and the cursor
would move at a rate, say proportional to some power of the
distance between where it is and where you point. Then, one
could use some more AI to distinguish "intentional" hand motions
from tremors, etc. A smart such box could watch your eyes and
face, too.
If you like holding a pen, that too could be wireless -- because
the vision system would track its point. Such systems could work
in three dimensions. The vision box would observe your
eye-point. When you move your head, the various windows would
move in accord with 3-d occlusions, and this would permit more on
a cluttered desk than the usual methods -- moving your head a
couple of inches to the left would uncover the next layer below
on each stack -- etc.
Given a lot of R&D, such gadgets could be made in the next few
years, and would be as important as speech inputs. We need a
"terminal vision machine" project. Also, aren't the CRT schemes
rather reactionary, if flat TV stuff is coming in the next year
or two? Instead of vertical displays we can soon have (i)
desk-surface displays for near vision and (ii) wall projected
screens for far vision.
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