g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Oblong Industries, the guy who literally made the ‘Minority Report’ technology a reality are showing off who it all works. Here’s a bit of trivia, in case you’re interested, One of the founders of Oblong, John Underkoffler was actually the advisor of science for the movie. The technology is absolutely phenomenal the way simple hands gestures are used as mediums in a 3D environment they’ve termed SOE (Spatial Operating Environment). Fingers and hand movements can be used to move 3D objects around or zoom in or out of them if necessary. The technology is called G-Speak, which, although I’m not absolutely sure, could very easily mean ‘Gesture-Speak’.

This technology was showcased during this year’s TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference where Underkoffler also stated that the sign technology is already being used by companies, governmental organizations and even universities. Of course the most interesting part of his discussion was that it could be available for the consumers within the next five years.

oblong's tamper system 1801011309 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

G-speak is designed to track hand movements with 0.1mm spatial resolution at 100 Hz..The company has also mentioned that the systems design would allow it to work with 3D displays and that it won’t be necessary to update the software. Special displays and surfaces can be used to work with videos and images and pretty much go as crazy as you can. The user would need a special set of gloves that would be 'condcutors' of sort for movement. Of course one would have to master the gestures first. You’ll look a bit like an orchestra conductor but hey, is this still awesome or what?!

Take a look at this test run where a user is designing a 3D pot. It’s not perfect and he does seem a little off with the gesture signals, nevertheless the fact that he created something so simple without having to touch anything at all, even a mouse is amazing.

There is no doubt that gesture based systems and augmented reality are the future. We've already transitioned from the touchscreen to multi-touch functionality and now, this. Take a look at the future -

Fayerwayer