

Amazing technique for browsing video by direct manipulation [video] - pdubroy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcIy9O344bI

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noonespecial
That just rocks. Now combine this with multi-touch surface technology...
_Minority Report_ here we come!

Seriously, another example of cool new technology that actually catches your
attention and makes you wonder how they did it.

Between what they're doing with music over at www.celemony.com, What Jeff Han
is doing (<http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65>), and what Trevor
Blackwell is doing at Anybots, I'm really starting to get excited about
technology again!

It sure is better than when they told me the future had arrived and it was pet
food by mail.

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pdubroy
Not to take anything away from Jeff Han, because he's done some great work,
but most of the techniques he demonstrates in that video were invented by
other people. For example, the use of the pinch gesture for resizing was first
published almost 20 years ago. Multi-touch interaction research has a long
history, but since the techniques are only now coming to consumer devices,
Jeff Han and Apple seem to be getting all the credit.

See <http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html> for a thorough review
of multi-touch research.

~~~
noonespecial
Yeah, I don't think Trevor invented self balancing systems either but when
someone does something so well it looks like magic, I think thats exciting. It
gives me hope for the future and a renewed sense of "I can't wait to see
what's next".

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andresvi
I don’t see why you guys think it’s amazing? They have just connected all
objects in video to videos timeline – you can’t really change anything but
just rewind and forward the video. Amazing for me would be if by moving one
object in the video the end outcome would be different...

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brianlash
"They have just connected all objects in video to videos timeline"

The technology is awesome if it's powered by software that interprets what
elements of a video constitute an object, and then connects those elements to
a timeline in a single, automated swoop. I've assumed that's the case, but I
could be completely wrong.

~~~
pixcavator
Whether they actually capture objects is unclear. You could get the same
results by building the vector field of motion (pixelwise) and then detecting
if the mouse moves along the vectors (fast forward) or against them (back).
So, you aren’t "dragging" the car with your mouse - your mouse is simply
following the path of the car.

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pistoriusp
I really want to play with this, one of the main problems that I'm having is
that if you don't know which direction the object was moving, say it was going
up, and you're dragging down would it do anything?

And in one frame you could be holding on to something whilst in the next
you're holding nothing... I guess we'll have to play with it to see how the
interface works.

I kind of get the feeling that it will be like placing the OS X dock on the
right or left side of your desktop, you instinctively want to resize by moving
up or down, but you have to move left or right.

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brianlash
That's really impressive. It puts me to mind of that image resizing tool
([http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/27/i-want-this-in-
photosho...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/27/i-want-this-in-photoshop-
immediately/)) in as far as it's an exciting way to work with an old, familiar
medium.

TechCrunch covered the former tool, whose co-founder was eventually hired away
by Adobe to build it into photoshop. Wonder if MA will pick up on this one...

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pdubroy
More information about this system can be found here:
<http://www.aviz.fr/dimp/>, including a longer video
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib_g7F6WKAA>) and paper from CHI 2008
(<http://www.aviz.fr/dimp/dimp-chi08.pdf>)

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pdubroy
Also, does this remind anyone else of Donnie Darko? The way the trail of an
object is "projected into the future".

