Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to allow people in one place to interact with three-dimensional versions of people or objects in a different location.
MIT’s Tangible Media Group calls the technology inFORM. A person in one location moves or puts an object in front of a depth-sensing camera. That camera sends signals to a motorized pin screen somewhere else and that’s where the 3-D image pops up. If someone on camera is moving his hands, for example, that movement would show up on the pin screen in another location.
They hope the technology can eventually be used by urban planners and architects. It could also be used by doctors and others who need to look at computed tomography scans.
According to MIT Technology Review, inFORM uses a Kinect motion sensing camera sourced from the Xbox system. It helps relay the movement of physical “pixels” on a table that move in lockstep with data from the camera. This direct link lets people remotely control objects from a distance or physically interact with temporary objects like data. The demonstration setup has a low 30-pixel-by-30-pixel resolution that helps illustrate the potential. The developers envision far higher resolutions in the future, which will help the system feel much more lifelike.
Source: The Associated Press