THE GIFTD

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Ok so I promise not to speak of technology, statistics and mega graphics of any kind for at least the next 3 posts. But I just had to share this just in case you haven’t seen the latest miracle in technology already! Tom Cruise bedazzled us in Minority Report with his year 2054 use of gesture recognition technology thanks to John Underkoffler (MIT’s Media Lab) who served as the film’s science advisor.
Now, a company called Oblong Industries co-founded by Underkoffler in 2006 and backed by Foundry Group managing director Brad Feld, is bringing the technology to life in the form of a new development platform, announced Friday, named g-speak. G-speak’s creators say it is the “first major step in computer interface since 1984,” when the Apple Macintosh introduced the mouse and the graphical user interface to the public.
Holy Shizzle!

“With one very public demo, John had created a clear vision of the future of how people would interact with computers that built on all the work he had been doing at MIT over the years,” says Feld of the film in a post on Oblong’s blog. “One of our investing themes is ‘human computer interaction’–we strongly believe that the current way we interact with computers, primarily with a keyboard and a mouse, is obsolete and will feel as quaint in 20 years as the idea of using punch cards does today. John and his colleagues at Oblong have created what we believe will be the next major UI paradigm–something we are calling the spatial operating environment.”
[source]

Currently experts say that this type of technology could be used by the physically impaired to interact with computers, such as interpreting sign language…sounds like a plan BUT the conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but wonder how else this technology could be used…