Swiss tech designers OZWE have created a virtual interface that replicates the iPhone screen's control surface.... controlled by gesture in 3D! According to TechCrunch,
Think of the convenience of multi-touch gestures applied to all your media, and not limited to a small patch on your laptop. Raise your hand and make your fingers into a shelf, then lower it the volume decreases. Spin your finger around clockwise to fast forward, counter-clockwise to rewind. Speak the name of a song, or the track number, or hold up an album cover to play it. This from anywhere in the same room as the QB1 or whatever successor makes good on these ideas
That's right, not just controlling the audio functions, but actually selecting tunes based on picture recognition (moot point - who has album covers any more?). Anyway, the video isn't embeddable, but can be found here
Faris wrote a couple of months ago about Pattie Maes from MIT's TED talk showcasing the wearable web, and this announcement shows that this type of tech is nearer than we think.
3D Press advertising on your computer screen Ok this is a convergence trick I haven't seen before. MINI in Germany have a press ad that you can hold in front of your webcam and see a 3D car sitting on top of the magazine on the screen. There's a 'making of' video on their site, which doesn't seem to have an embed code, so I can't nick it and put it here (or maybe it does and I don't know the German for 'embed code'). Doesn't appear to be on YouTube yet. Essentially it looks like this except much better, as it's a video. To me this is a classic case of first mover advantage: as a magazine reader once you have done it once, you might not bother again. Most people with the technology to hand (ie. the sort of people who will talk about how cool it is to lots of people) would probably have a go once for novelty value - so respect to MINI for being there first. Not sure about how easy those people will find it to explain the concept without it being on YouTube though, so maybe a trick missed there.To be fair maybe they want to let someone else to grab and upload it, so it appears more authentic than if MINI or their agency publish it themselves. (Disclaimer: MINI UK is a Zed client, although not one I've ever worked on, nor that had anything to do with this)
