Hizook

People who know me well are aware that I enjoy good science fiction.  One of the best scifi books in recent history is Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge, which has won a 2007 Hugo nomination.

One of the things that makes Vinge a good scifi writer is that he is well educated in science and technology (former professor in math and CS).   According to Dr. Thad Starner, a wearables expert from GA Tech who is acquainted with Vinge, I know that Vinge was an early subscriber to the "Wearables Mailing List."  All of this means that Vinge is well-versed in the current capabilities and exciting future of wearable devices and human-computer interfaces.  To make a long story short, I love this book.

Anyway... I was thrilled to get an email from a colleague (Dan) that Vinge released a free, full-text, online copy of Rainbows End!!!  You can find the link on Vinge's website:  Vrinimi.org.  The direct link to the book can be found here.  Enjoy (and if you like the book, be sure to support the author by buying a copy -- we want to send a clear message that "we want more").

I ran across this on Gizmodo:

Japanese boffins are now making animations by creating small plasma balls in mid-air. The technology doesn't use vapor or strange gases, just lasers to heat up oxygen and nitrogen molecules: up to 1,000 brilliant dots per second, which makes smooth motion possible. They could be used as street signs, advertising or to create giant plasma monsters to destroy entire cities. Maybe.

My complaints about most blogs is depicted perfectly in this post... In a brilliant scientific reporting style, they managed distill an otherwise ingenious technology into half-witted "appeal-to-the-masses" quips. To make matters worse, their only reference source is a link to a Google translated page (from Japanese) from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that the translation quality is lacking.

Oh well, enough of my rant about popular blogging style; they did introduce me to a cool technology of which I was previously unaware. Anyway, I scanned through some of the older, English press releases and found a coherently written one in English:

Most of the 3D displays reported until now draw pseudo-3D images on 2D planes by utilizing the human binocular disparity. However, many problems occur, e.g., the limitation of the visual field, and the physiological displeasure due to the misidentification of virtual images.

We have developed a 3D display, which utilizes the plasma emission phenomenon near a focal point of focused laser light. By controlling positions of the focal points in three directions of X-, Y-, and Z-axes, real 3D-images constructed by dot arrays were displayed in the air (3D-space).

Ah, much better description! From what I can gather from the Google translated page (referenced by Gimodo), they are using a solid-state femtosecond laser (with peak power in the sub-tera-Watt range -- around 0.1 TWatt) firing at 1kHz to produce 1000 plasma "dots" per second -- effectively allowing them to display continuous motion. Overall, they mention an average power consumption of 200 Watts.

This system differs in concept from Holographic 3D Video (shown below left) and what the Japanese release called "human binocular disparity" systems, such as the Actuality Perspecta (two images, below right) from Actuality Systems. I've talked briefly about these in an older post here.

This laser-induced plasma display is compelling. However, there are obstacles with it becoming as useful as competing 3D video systems -- namely resolution and color. The resolution is limited by the ability to generate high-power laser pulses. Current systems just can't handle too many tera-Watt pulses before overheating. Also, the color of the plasma is related to the excited gas composition and temperature. The temperature is easy to vary (just change the laser output power or duration). Unfortunately, it is not so trivial to change the gas composition, especially at the location of individual 3D pixels at 30-60 Hz for seamless video (at least, this seems difficult from my perspective).

Still, cool stuff! (Bonus points for anyone who can find a video...)

UPDATE 8/15/2007:   I found an older English press release that describes their earlier system with a nano-second laser and 100 pulses per second.  The diagram below shows how the laser produces the plasma "ball."

This is a kit (runs about $99) available from International Fashion Machines (IFM) that is a "fuzzy (or furry) sensor." The devices are "Designed specifically for toy, fashion, and other electronic product developers." On their website, they use them for controlling light switches, lamp dimmers, and "custom artwork."

Plush Touch™ Sensors are made with e-textile material that cost little more than traditional textiles. Added materials cost for one of our sensors can be as little as pennies. IFM's Plush Touch™ Sensors work with a variety of capacitive sensing circuits and technology. IFM has sourced many electronic components, so partners can work with our known sources or leverage their own expertise in electronics by purchasing or manufacturing these parts directly from Asia.

Based on their documentation, it is plain to see that they are using conductive thread/fabric connected to Q-Prox capacitive sensors. Of course, you could home-brew your own... The Q-Prox sensors can be had for a few dollars on DigiKey, and the conductive thread can be had at Lame Lifesaver (for $15 CAN for 200 yards) or LessEMF (for $61.95 for 2770 meters).

Granted, IFM has a patent on the technology, described as:

IFM's patent 7,054,133 provides broad coverage of any e-textile lighting capacitive touch controller. This includes lamps, wall mounted dimmers and any other capacitive e-textile method for controlling lighting- including night-lights and wireless light controls that use an e-textile connected to a sensing circuit. IFM's patent provides broad coverage of an electronic textile controller "pompom" which can be used to control toys or any electronic device. IFM's strong patent applications support this broad patent with additional coverage. These additional applications will cover all fuzzy sensors, lofted, and piled novelty yarns and e-textile kits that enable the crafting of electronic textile devices.

You can still use the idea for hobby use, and I'm sure there are other uses beyond what is described in the patent (though I have yet to read it). Anyway, a sample application is the ZipperSensor, which is a "smart, digital zipper." Basically, you can use know the position of the zipper and use that like a sliding trim resistor.

I have my own ideas for potential uses, but I will leave those for another day (like post-publication)...

So some colleagues that sit near me are publishing their interesting/unique wearable interface, called the Gesture Watch.

The principle (on a very high level) is essentially the same as my wearable, Hambone, only the sensors (and interaction technique) are different. Instead of piezoelectric sensors, they use infrared sensors which detect your other hand's movement over the "watch." The signals can then be translated into commands to control a program/device.

This is basically an extension of work done previously called the Gesture Pendant (local copy). It is really neat to see it shrunk down even further. It would (honestly) be very cool to see this sort of interaction in a watch -- eliminate those unsightly buttons!

Anyway, I'm quite jealous... Both of our projects (through the Contextual Computing Group lab) were approached by Discovery Channel representatives for abstracts, paper copies, etc. Their's ultimately made it on Discovery News, as well as Gizmodo and Engadget!

Guess I'll just have to make something cooler still, but in the meantime I'm happy with my publication -- not bad for a class project.

Well, I suppose I should go ahead and announce it since it is official...

I have my first (conference) publication as 1^st author, and it was nominated for best-paper!  There were a total of four authors: myself (Travis Deyle), Szabolcs Palinko, Erika Shehan-Poole, and Thad Starner.  The paper is entitled "Hambone: A Bio-Acoustic Gesture Interface."  It is being published in ISWC 2007 (International Symposium on Wearable Computers).   Take a look at the device.

In layman's terms:

You put these two sensors on your wrist.  When you move your hand, the device sends the signals to a computer.  The computer figures out what motions your fingers are making and then controls some computer program. 

Check out the video (local high-res copy) to get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Here is a good image showing the gestures we used and what "typical" waveforms from each gesture looked like.

Anyway, here is the abstract:

Mobile input technologies can be bulky, obtrusive, or difficult to use while performing other tasks. In this paper, we present Hambone, a lightweight, unobtrusive system that affords quick access, subtlety, and multitasking capabilities for gesture-based mobile device interaction. Hambone uses two small piezoelectric sensors placed on either the wrist or ankle. When a user moves his hands or feet, the sounds generated by the movement travel to Hambone via bone conduction. Hambone then transmits the signals digitally to a mobile device or computer. The signals are recognized using hidden Markov models (HMMs) and are mapped to a set of commands controlling an application. In this paper, we present the hardware and software implementation of Hambone, a preliminary evaluation, and a discussion of future opportunities in bio-acoustic gesture-based interfaces.

I'm not sure what the rules are about posting pre-release copies of the paper...  I'll go ahead and post the paper, since I hate the non-color IEEE proceedings versions anyways.  Be advised, it is a hefty download (about 11.5MB).  It may be modified and/or replaced eventually by the "actual" IEEE version.

I was talking with my advisor today, and he showed me this really cool "smart surface" developed at MIT during the late 90's. It's basically a ping-pong table with a projection overlay. The ball bounce locations are determined by microphones underneath the table and then relayed to the computer controlling the projector. In this fashion, a number of unique overlay patterns/programs can be used (I think the ripples on the ball bounce locations is the coolest).

PingPongPlus is a digitally enhanced version of the classic ping-pong game. It is played with ordinary, un-tethered paddles and balls, and features a "reactive table" that incorporates sensing, sound, and projection technologies. Projectors display patterns of light and shadow on the table; bouncing balls leave images of rippling water; and the rhythm of play drives accompanying music and visuals. In the process, this project explores new ways to couple athletic recreation and social interaction with engaging digital enhancements.

The photo doesn't give the system justice, so check out the video (local copy):

The really clever part (from my perspective) is determining the ball bounce locations (effectively through time-of-arrival triangulation). The picture below sums up the system.

If you'd like to find out more about Ping Pong Plus, you can read the two CHI papers written about it here and here (locally here and here). There is also a pretty thorough workup on "Passive Acoustic Sensing for Tracking Knocks Atop Large Interactive Displays," here (local copy), that discusses the location determination techniques.

Pretty neat stuff...

UPDATE (July 9, 2007): I found a copy of a preliminary paper by the investigators of this technology. You can find a copy online here, or locally here. It is a pretty interesting read. They are using a lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) guided-wave acousto-optic modulator (at a higher bandwidth) instead of more typical surface acoustic wave (SAW) modulators. Apparently their lithium niobate modulator can also diffract along two axes and rotate polarization (for later selective filtering). I has assumed they were using "normal" SAW modulators, so this technique is "new" to me... To tell the truth, all of this stuff is still a bit over my head, but I'm learning quickly... This stuff is fascinating!

There was an article on MIT's Technology Review entitled "Holographic Video for Your Home." It discuses, at length, developments by Michael Bove (et. al.) to create smaller holographic displays using novel modulators and semiconductor lasers to generate dynamic holograms. First, lets take a look at a few of the images (and descriptions) from the article:

	Bove's team has developed a high-bandwidth, multi­channel light modulator (left) that converts a one-gigahertz electrical signal into a holographic video. The signal makes the clear crystal in the center of the device vibrate at specific frequencies.
	When laser light shines into the crystal, as seen in this image, the vibrations change the directions and intensities of the emitted light, creating diffraction patterns--the basis of a hologram
	An earlier holographic-video system (left) required racks of equipment to drive the modulators and moving mirrors.
	A new modulator decreases the number of optical components needed (left). The optics of Mark III will eventually fit into a box half a meter long.

Now, a few choice quotes:

The Media Lab's video holograms appear to float above a piece of frosted glass. An electronic device behind the glass, called a light modu­lator, reproduces interference patterns that encode information about the pictured object. Laser light striking the modulator scatters just as it would if it were reflecting off the object at different angles.

The Media Lab's video holograms appear to float above a piece of frosted glass. An electronic device behind the glass, called a light modu­lator, reproduces interference patterns that encode information about the pictured object. Laser light striking the modulator scatters just as it would if it were reflecting off the object at different angles.

Aware that this sort of display wouldn't cut it in consumer applications, Bove and his team have laid out plans for the next generation of the system, Mark IV. Mark IV will use a set of powerful red, blue, and green semiconductor lasers to shine full-color videos onto a screen the size of a computer monitor. A prototype could be ready within the next couple of years.

Cool stuff. It mentions in the article that early holographic video systems were developed all the way back in the 1980's. This stuff isn't new per-se, but it is being driven by the "shrinking" size of optical components. I have a number of colleagues who work in this area, and I tend to share their belief that revolutionary breakthroughs are eminent. Among the potential breakthroughs: very small and sensitive sensors, semiconductor-laser based TVs and projectors, contact-lens displays, optical computers, etc. Micro-optical components are really at the point that MEMS was during the early 1990's -- on the verge of a major break-out.

I should probably mention that I like the holographic video system better than other 3D video generation techniques -- mostly due to the lack of moving parts. There are a number of systems that use persistence of vision (or advanced projection techniques) via a spinning mechanism. For example, the Actuality Perspecta system from Actuality Systems.

The Perspecta Spatial 3-D System v1.9 creates 10”-diameter three-dimensional imagery.

Of course, I suppose there is some benefit to having a commercially available unit already in production -- unlike the holographic video systems being developed at MIT. For example, check out the medical image from Actuality.

Either way, these "spinning" displays have severe limitations: they're not physically interactive (you can't touch the images); their refresh rates are limited by mechanical inertia (they don't scale well); they're prone to mechanical breakdown (moving parts); and finally, if they fail or break there will be a lot of kinetic energy to dissipate (notice the thick glass to protect it)!

Anyway, that's just my 2¢.

Electroactive polymers (EAPs) can provide low-power, life-like, compliant actuation. This makes them well-suited for applications in animatronics (life-like robots). Some of the more striking examples are shown below.

	This is probably the most striking biomimetric animatronic example, from Eamex. The eye and eyelid have extremely realistic motion, and the motion is achieved without complex and bulky motor/pulley systems. Be sure to check out the video! (Local copy of the video here)
	This robotic head also shows lifelike facial expressions. It was a platform for EAP demonstrations, photographed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (via David Hanson at UT Dallas). Again, be sure to check out the video. (Local copy of the video here)
	This small, stuffed toy from Eamex is actuated using EAPs. The motion is designed to be "cute" for children. The compliance (reduced torque) of the EAP actuation makes them safe around children. The movements remind me of the Teddy Bear from the movie "AI - Artificial Intelligence." Check out the video. (Local copy of the video here)
	These dinosaur toys (T-Rex, Triceratops, and Brontosaurus) are actuated using EAPs, again from Eamex. The motion is interesting, and not over-powering (so no worries about cutting off a child's finger from too much torque). The video can be found here. (Local copy of the video here)

Seiko recently unveiled a unique new application for E-Ink display technology -- unsurprisingly, the application is related to wristwatches.

The Seiko press release actually does a great job describing the electronic ink concept employed by the E-Ink corporation.

Electronic ink is a proprietary material that is processed into a film for integration into electronic displays. Although revolutionary in concept, electronic ink is a straightforward fusion of chemistry, physics and electronics to create this new material. The principal components of electronic ink are millions of tiny microcapsules, about the diameter of a human hair. Each microcapsule contains positively charged white particles and negatively charged black particles suspended in a clear fluid. When a negative electric field is applied, the white particles move to the top of the microcapsule where they become visible to the user. This makes the surface appear white at that spot. At the same time, an opposite electric field pulls the black particles to the bottom of the microcapsules where they are hidden. By reversing this process, the black particles appear at the top of the capsule, which now makes the surface appear dark at that spot.

E-Ink is well suited to wristwatch applications for a number of reasons. From the press release, a few of the reasons include:

Ultra high contrast: The display is made up of pure black and pure white particles which allow the same contrast as on a printed page; twice the contrast, in fact, of a LCD panel.

Ultra thin: The display is much thinner than is possible with any conventional watch technology, analog or digital. The display is also flexible, so 'wrist bracelet' or bangle designs are possible.

Low power consumption: The display is readable under very low light conditions, so no backlighting is required. The display also has an inherently stable 'memory effect' that requires no power to retain and sustain the image. For these reasons, battery life is extended.

Unrestricted size: Because of its flexibility and other properties, the display can be of virtually any size and shape. In this design, the display area covers over two thirds of the total surface area of the watch.

The most enticing aspect about E-Ink wristwatches, however, is their ability to transform to a new "style" at the flick of a switch. All of these aspects make it an ideal wearable device.

This is a cool idea (from PopSci):

Never Lose Another Memo -- Soon, staples won’t just keep papers together—they’ll make sure you keep them, period. As RFID tags shrink in price and size, Swingline wants to embed them in staples so that lost documents can radio their location to a tracking device.

I think the idea is really great, and would have been useful to me, except for one fact...

I bought a Tablet PC (a great Fujitsu Lifebook) so that I don't need to worry about print materials anymore. My homeworks are written (literally) on the tablet, then printed for submission, and almost all handouts are provided in electronic form. My organizational skills are two orders of magnitude more advanced in the electronic realm than they ever were in the physical realm.

A similar concept to the RFID staples might still be useful for my textbooks though, at least until I can get them in PDF form. Speaking of which, they should really offer reduced-priced textbooks in PDF form. They'd save a bundle on distribution. I guess they're just reluctant to do so without DRM

[Via OhGizmo]