Imagine that you are projecting an image through a projector while giving a presentation. Now, having a number of additional accessories to control the presentation to perform zoom and other features can be quite annoying. However, with AT&T’s all-new ShadowPuppets, you can do all this merely with the help of your shadow gestures.
The idea is really quite simple. When you use your phone to project an image to the projector, you can control it with the help of shadow gestures. You can pinch-to-zoom the image, you can move your hand away from the projector to zoom out and towards the projector to zoom in. Moreover, you can also pan and scroll the display by swiping your hand left to right and up to down.
The most remarkable aspect of ShadowPuppets is that apparently, it doesn’t need a lot of specialized hardware to perform all these amazing tasks. The hardware with which AT&T demonstrated the whole thing comprised of a 1.3 megapixel Logitech cam and a MicroVision ShowWX Laser pico projector.
During the demo, AT&T attempted to show all these functions being performed on the browser version of Google Maps, being run on an Alienware laptop. Whereas the demo attempted to give more of a proof-of-concept than anything else, it worked very smoothly. The whole apparatus can prove to be very useful for the users if indeed it can be run on simple and not too expensive hardware. AT&T does claim, for now, that the entire thing can run on a smartphone rather than a laptop, without any qualms.
Using shadows in presentations can be very useful, according to the researchers working on the project. Especially when the presentation being given is more of a group activity of group game, shadows can be very useful and less cluttery in performing all the numerous functions.
[ttjad]
