

Gates: Next decade will bring huge software advances - edw519
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/13/Gates-says-next-decade-will-bring-huge-software-advances_1.html

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hobbs
Nothing too outrageous in those predictions.

One thing that I think will quickly come of age, though, is camera-based head
and pupil tracking.

Camera-based head tracking would provide a 3D experience as was shown with
that Wii hack, but without the need for any headgear.

Accurate pupil tracking in particular needs camera technology that is only now
becoming affordable. It needs either a very high resolution camera, or a
typical resolution camera that is mounted on servos that keep the camera
focused on the head and eyes no matter where they may bob.

Pupil tracking would not only provide a mouseless pointer, but it could also
be used to compress video bandwidth. That is, a video client could track what
part of the image the fovea is concentrating on. Then only that section of the
video needs to be streamed in high resolution from the media server. All other
sections can be streamed in a lower resolution for the peripheral vision. The
latency between the client and server would obviously have to be very low, but
it could provide some very high resolution detail, particularly for medical
imaging.

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pchristensen
Now _that_ (focus-based streaming) would be a clever hack! Kudos!

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hobbs
Oh, I forgot to mention dynamic level-of-detail in computer games and other
types of real-time rendering. Very similar to the video concept, but still
worth mentioning.

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stuartcw
See Bill Gates previous comments:
<http://www.danielsen.com/jokes/BillGatesquotes.txt>

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ajross
Didn't he say that last decade too? I'm pretty sure I still have that book...

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tokipin
the 'surface computer' is pretty cool
<http://www.news.com/1606-2-6186146.html>

it makes me wonder what sorts of things will be possible with a 'space
computer'

