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While Micorsoft’s Surface is kinda cool, but also like the Pac-man console at that pizza place, the newly debut Microsoft Touchwall puts it all in perspective and drops an ax on what it would take to get multi-touch technology into your tech-grubby hands.
All this uses is a couple hundred bucks of readily-available, rear-projection hardware and the software technology called “Plex” that runs on top of Vista.
Before you run out and get a Vista tattoo though, you should know this isn’t commercially available yet and Microsoft doesn’t have any plans to make it so, until they realize how stupid that is.
CAD will never be the same
One of the first thoughts when someone sees this is how cool it will be for gaming. Fact is, it will be cool for a lot of applications. In my opinion, multi-touch and display technology has the greatest affect on how traditional CAD programs, user interaction and design functions will change. I say Microsoft needs to Open Source this software and let everyone go buckwild with development.
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It looks like something that doesn’t exist except in the movies. Since the Ironman Movie launched last week I’ve been trying to get my hands on some video of the stinkin’ cool 3D holo-CAD user interface he uses to design the MarkIII he goes kickin’ butt in.
If you’ve seen the movie you already know what I’m talking about and are wondering what the heck is taking CAD companies so long to make a system that only traumatized alcoholic millionaires can afford. The best I can do is give you a link to a video of the UI (that might be infringing on copyright laws.)
What do you think?
Is this too far off? Whoever thought of this had some idea of how things are designed and what goes into the process of how CAD systems work. You can see Tony Stark interacting with the holographic objects - moving, exploding, rotating, touching and testing out the design with his hands. Some would say it’s unrealistic. Where’s the history? the parametrics? where’s the commands? Maybe it will be none of those things or maybe it’s something cooler. The way technology looked on star trek isn’t exactly the way it looks today ya know.
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It looks like a pre-programmed bunch of flippy things making your phone look cooler than those plain jane iPhones, that’s what it looks like.
The HTC Touch Diamond is the next amazing 3D interface stuffed into a tiny 2.8 inch display to make you strap that drool-cup on again. Sure its tiny, but you can make all your 2D friends that much more removed from reality.
All you cool European folk can run out and get one now, the rest of us will have to wait till the last part of 2008 to gaze into the Windows Mobile® 6.1′in, Integrated GPS’in, 4 GB Internal Storin’, 3.2 MP shootin’ touch phone. There’s a cool video if ya click on the pic.
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Last night at 11 PM CST Microsoft let loose the fetters of Live Mesh, a new platform technology to synchronize and interact with data across any device and access it from anywhere from any computer or browser.
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Yep, faster than blindfolded Japanese hurdle jumpers for sure. You may think your 8GB flash memory thumbdrive is all that. Sure, it’s tiny and cute and degrades slowly over time, but how about some memory that will store and access information over 100 times faster and not degrade?
IBM’s Racetrack memory has been buzzing around for about a year now, but some events last week broke the research barriers that could have this tempting your zombie tech-consumers lusts within the next ten years.
Knocking Down the Walls
To totally geek out on you, IBM has been able to dance gingerly around the inconsistencies in the crystalline structure of magnetic nano-wires to allow magnetic domains to read/write data unhindered. Fascinating. This means some fast data accessin’ power son. An explanatory video? Sure, see below.
Faster Load Times For 3D CAD?
You all know load 3D data can take an eternity sometimes. If it’s not the network, it’s the size of the model. If it’s not the model, its your fist in the computer screen. Its hard to even comprehend not having to wait for load times huh? Since no load times leads to more free time, models and data will become so complex and realistic that there will still be load times. Here’s that video.
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Ok, enough of the silly posts. Time for something seriously cool and real. If you use Gmail, it’s an absolute pain to have it synced with Outlook. On top of that, if you use Plaxo and have all your other email accounts synced with Outlook, your Gmail account is an abyss of random email addresses and calendar entries.
Cemaphore is changing that with MailShadow® for Google Apps that ties Outlook and Exchange Server to the Google backend, giving you seamless interoperability with your offline and online email and calendar management.
This is big news and badly needed. My Gmail is like the missing link for contacts and calendar even though I manage all my emails from it.
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There’s an interesting segment in technology that really has the largest direct effect on how we work and how teenagers spend 20+hours of their week. The Screen. That amazing peripheral you’re gazing into right now to which we’ve come to view the entire world through… until it goes black or your laptop is yanked off the table by a toddler.
From the ready availability of laptop screens it seems as if this happens to quite a few of them. Without a doubt, in the near future, we’ll put the isolated workstation aside for the ultra-portable laptops that have the same capabilities. I’ve developed a lot of interest in the displays over the past few years because of the advances in technology with thinner laptops like the Sony Vaio or Macbook Air, flexible OLED screens and of course all the multi-touch stuff that has come out.
Then, the prices of LCD’s drop off so much because of competition and increased manufacturing, Best Buy stop carrying the tubes, and I wonder if I can just buy a whole palette of replacement screens to cover the wallpaper I have yet to take down in the bathroom. How sweet would that be?… How expensive would that be? And then replacing them along with the lightbulbs when they go out?
On top of that, there’s the business side where you could invest in the companies producing laptops or in the manufacturers pumping out the screens. To use the California gold rush analogy: It wasn’t the miners who got rich; it was the people who sold the picks and shovels. Who has the next best shovel?
The technology is certainly changing. More than anything though, I’m just glad I don’t have a huge CRT sitting on my desk anymore.
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Ya know, I’ve heard about people drawing 3D models in the air, but this is the first time I’ve seen it. To me it seems like a bunch of ‘keyboard-like’ commands in the air but, wow ya know, pretty close to what you might imagine huh?
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A very new and very large report on 3D Technology came out this month that “takes a realistic view of 3D display technology and its future in the professional and consumer electronics sectors.”
Being familiar with developing a product in 3D, you may like to know 3D display technology is spreading and could affect how you use a computer or even how you watch TV.
You can’t view the entire report and it cost $5900 USD (3745 Euro) to gain insight into this developing technology, but some of the interesting highlights mentioned are:
6 major display technologies
Compatible technology
3D CAD Image Generation
3D applications and markets
Human Factors of 3D displays
Roadmaps for technology
A list of 650+ companies, etc. involved in 3D display technology
3D Printing
Cool Factor
You don’t need to read a 400 page report to know this tech is pretty cool.
Usually a report like this is to prove that (more) money should be put into research and development. Who know who did the study, but I have no doubt that these types of displays will be so common in the near future that they won’t even be referred to as 3D displays, just displays. And I doubt they’ll look like what were use to.
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So, I was in the sphere yesterday, right, and the boss says, “You’re 3d models are all mis-shappened, are you using this thing right?” He just doesn’t understand the stress of having to be in this thing for hours.
Ya gotta just love those virtual reality developers. They’re always thinking of the next way to make a virtual environment as authentic as possible. The VirtuSphere is one of my favorites. Just look at that honkin’ huge sphere of VR metallic-romp-about goodness. Forget that you have a few pounds of visualization equipment and padding strapped to you, you’re in a steel sphere man. That thing could tear from it’s rollers any second and wreck havoc through the office. Ahhh, the future.
What’s a little more interesting about this one is it’s relation to SolidWorks parent company, Dassault. VirtuSphere, Inc. is taking part in the V+R Challenge to help the Marseille Motion Science Institute obtain motion simulations of the foot.
You think VR has a place in CAD or in helping CAD development?
If you haven't already, consider subscribing to SolidSmack so you can easily receive updates when new articles are published or announcements are made.
While Micorsoft’s Surface is kinda cool, but also like the Pac-man console at that pizza place, the newly debut Microsoft Touchwall puts it all in perspective and drops an ax on what it would take to get multi-touch technology into your tech-grubby hands.
It looks like something that doesn’t exist except in the movies. Since the Ironman Movie launched last week I’ve been trying to get my hands on some video of the stinkin’ cool 3D holo-CAD user interface he uses to design the MarkIII he goes kickin’ butt in.
It looks like a pre-programmed bunch of flippy things making your phone look cooler than those plain jane iPhones, that’s what it looks like.
Last night at 11 PM CST Microsoft let loose the fetters of 
Yep, faster than blindfolded Japanese hurdle jumpers for sure. You may think your 8GB flash memory thumbdrive is all that. Sure, it’s tiny and cute and degrades slowly over time, but how about some memory that will store and access information over 100 times faster and not degrade?
Ok, enough of the silly posts. Time for something seriously cool and real. If you use Gmail, it’s an absolute pain to have it synced with Outlook. On top of that, if you use 
There’s an interesting segment in technology that really has the largest direct effect on how we work and how teenagers spend 20+hours of their week. The Screen. That amazing peripheral you’re gazing into right now to which we’ve come to view the entire world through… until it goes black or your laptop is yanked off the table by a toddler.
A very new and very large 
So, I was in the sphere yesterday, right, and the boss says, “You’re 3d models are all mis-shappened, are you using this thing right?” He just doesn’t understand the stress of having to be in this thing for hours.
