Surface displays with the ability to interact with information will soon become the norm. It will be even better when the information that we can interact with is environment based. Take the kitchen for example, countertops are where we primarily make our meals and it becomes an inconvenience to always check our cookbooks or the web for the correct recipe to use for certain dishes. However what if we had a countertop that could see what ingredients we are using and projects different recipes and even video instructions on how to cook it to perfection? Ryder Ziola, a grad student at the University of Washington, developed just such a system called Oasis. It works by using a pico projector (made by Microvision) and a 3D depth perceiving camera (made by PrimeSense, who also supply sensors for the Kinect) to identify food or objects on the counter, which at this stage of development can only recognize color information. On the other hand Oasis can learn to recognize new objects just by taking a picture or ‘snapshot’ of it. With the use of the projector the countertop become an interactive environment that is touch sensitive to quickly give you nutritional information, recipes, even helpful hints. Seems like a moot point however if all you consume is microwave meals.
Eavesdropper
