Atbatt

No one could predict that the success of Kinect would lead to Microsoft itself as a patron of the scene formalizing the development of applications with an SDK, let alone end up with a unique version of the computer hardware, with the intention of signing Redmond to create a motion capture system as a method of interacting with your computer. It seems curious that this technology has been with Apple, which is working on its own system of interaction through movements, or so suggests the latest patent application that the company has recently made official. The “Capture and display three-dimensional” (Three-dimensional imaging and display system) describes a method of introducing new orders or commands where the user “is optically detected in an image volume.”

The system would monitor and detect the user’s hands in three dimensional space in front of an Apple computer, and this could manipulate a series of virtual on-screen controls – or “virtual projects” – such as buttons, icons or boxes, which would supplement or completely replace to the traditional keyboard and mouse. The patent application, which is quite specific as to the operation of the interface and detailed with highly technical language, explain how the device calculate the coordinates of hand position with a single measurement system, although similar to that used Kinect with points of light and infrared camera. Apple’s vision of the virtual user interface is extremely complex and radically different from what until now has in its products, which denotes a certain concern for the success of the system from Microsoft, and also a change in the philosophy of the company, until now fairly orthodox in research of new technologies.

As observed in this large and cumbersome patent, Apple could change not only the method of introduction, if the user interface to fit the motion capture, saying goodbye to the traditional Finder. But not only be a visual change to use, the patent also details the use of other types of response, and auditory, to complement the motion capture, such as the use of a sound when turning a dial to control, or even a 3D virtual projection using a complex system of mirrors, which most likely will never become real.

What is Apple’s real intention? Personally I hope not, now or in the near future, a system so pompous and showy as comes out of Apple’s engineering labs, or anything, but I do see as might be the beginning of a transition leading to the company to devise new methods of interaction to fend off competition featuring Kinect in this case, and possibly in a relatively short period of time other similar devices that change the way they control our personal computers. Tactile interfaces such as tablets or advanced trackpads – Apple Magic Trackpad, Touchpad Logitech Wireless – have taken center stage in recent years and may now be time to more advanced technology like Kinect, coming to compatible market early next year with the intention of revolutionizing the relationship of users with their home computers.