Johnny Lee: HCI for masses

HCI is Human Computer Interaction, and Johnny Lee from CMU, is making it damn cheaper and fun! And he is making all the code, tools available for hobbyists freely on the web! Now, you can turn any laptop, computer, wall projection into a touchscreen. Or you can wave your fingers at it like in Matrix, click, zoom and pan. Why limit to fixed, flat surfaces? You can take a blank paper, a tablet, an umbrella or mini clay model of a car and turn it into a movable projected display, giving it virtual skin, zoom, pan, doodle on it, move it, tilt it, twirl it! He also has figured a way to use wiimote to turn the flat, drab 2D screen into a 3D display using head tracking, offering custom views for each perspective. Now ducking and strafe from oncoming bullets in Doom, can be much more real life! And all this without the expensive price tag. All above projects are doable with access to off the shelf hardware like computer, projector, wiimote or Umbrella :-) he has also made a 14$ steadycam, which takes steady shoots even while cameraman sprinting! That is the boon for all wannabe speilbergs with great ideas up the sleeve, but no money in the pockets. Cheers to you, Johnny!

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Anonymous said…
Good post.
5:08 AM
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