2010 is shaping up to be the Year of Hands-Free Controls.
Last week I blogged about a patent from Sony for a new motion-sensing videogame controller.
This comes after several months of hype/speculation about Microsoft's Project Natal: a motion-sensing camera for the Xbox 360.
Now add BiDi to the mix. Developed at the Massachussets Institue of Technology, BiDi is described as "an example of a new type of I/O device that possesses the ability to both capture images and display them. This thin, bidirectional screen extends the latest trend in LCD devices, which has seen the incorporation of photo-diodes into every display pixel. Using a novel optical masking technique developed at the Media Lab, the BiDi Screen can capture lightfield-like quantities, unlocking a wide array of applications from 3-D gesture interaction with CE devices, to seamless video communication."
Will gesturing be the mouse of the next decade?
I spoke about innovations in videogame interfaces on NPR Weekend Edition yesterday. You can listen here.
David Kushner is the author of many books, including Masters of Doom, Jonny Magic & the Card Shark Kids, Levittown, The Bones of Marianna, and Alligator Candy. A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, he has written for publications including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine.
