Show Idea - Iron Man Mirror

I've seen things like this before, I wonder what the best way to get gesture recognition?  You probably have to have an empty space and a webcam behind it (in the wall).  Maybe you could have a webcam in front  up top aiming at the mirror so it could see you?  I don't know how powerful opencv is but it might be a start on the software.

I know tons of people will just say "use the kinect" but I think that wouldn't work very well, the kinect is kind of mid to long range limited.  And if you put the kinect behind the mirrored surface, I'm not sure how well it will be able to see you because of its IR grid it sends out.

That's a good point about the Kinect.  I was just googling Johnny Lee to see what gesture based control solutions he had come up with and I found Leap http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_d6KuiuteIAhttp:// . This looks like it may be the way to go.  I wonder If it could be mounted behind the mirror though.

Any ideas on the software to serve up the content?

The Leap is only $70 but It looks like it won't be available until December or January. 

It's probably doable if its mounted into the mirror above the reflective surface.  The tougher task is projecting a HUD into the mirror unless you just use a display screen and a webcam making a pseudo-mirror.  I'd love to take it and integrate it on an everyday household window, or a glass tabletop more than just a mirror.  This is going to make living like Tony Stark WAY more accessible to everyone.

Not holding my breath on Leap.  Until it comes out I'll assume its another awesome Vaporware :-/  Too many too good to be true technologies turn out this way.

My original thought was a display behind the bathroom mirror.  It would be sweet to integrate it into a window but you wouldn't really be able to see it during daytime unless you had a pretty intense laser projector.  I think the pico HD from Microvision might do the trick though. 

Did you see the clear Samsung display at CES?  Put one of those in place of a window and bam, you're starkin it up all day.

I hear ya.  It looks pretty promising though.  For now it looks like a webcam is the best solution.

The question is: How difficult do you think it would be to not only integrate it into the surface, but program the HUD that would be the 'tangible' workspace?  In that case, we could take a glass tabletop and use a projector to make an alterable hologram.

I'm not sure I completely follow you.  The only way I know to integrate it into the surface of glass would be to project through the side of the glass and have etched beam splitters in the middle of the glass so the image had something to project off of like Lumus does with their glasses.  One other thing to do is to project up onto a piece of glass that is at a 45º angle like a teleprompter.  The part I'm not following on is the tangible workspace and alterable hologram.  Do you mean like when Tony Stark is putting his hand through the hologram to test the fitment of the hand thrusters?

I mean like when he pulls up a design of the suit he made in the desert as a hologram, and starts spinning it and taking parts off of it making it 'tangible' (in a sense). If what the leap can display on a screen, can be transformed into a hologram it would be like making it 'tangible' for lack of a better term. Their goal is to be able to make molding clay on a computer just as realistic as molding clay in real life, which is the jump-off point that I'm trying to get across.