| vaio said: Imagine having a Cocoon in your home, connected to the Internet. Its unique interface means that rather than inputing commands with a keyboard or a moving a cursor with a mouse, you can simply reach out and 'grab' information from all around you. If that sounds like science fiction, it may be because the 3D motion-tracking system was originally developed by John Underkoffler, whose work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology inspired similar 'reach out and grab' technology in the sci-fi movie "Minority Report." ... "Imagine Amazon.com being fully 3D. We could walk through a 3D space where you have all the books lined up, and you could walk right up to a book," he says. Virtual shoppers might be able to take books off their shelves and read a sample, or even ask other virtual customers for recommendations. |
Okay, the whole virtual history thing sounded great, but the rest of it is pure garbage.
Why would you want to reach out and grab information when you could just use a mouse? A cursor is pinpoint accurate, but your finger is not. A mouse has a stable base and requires only small, precise movements. Physically "grabbing" information would require you to keep lifting your arms up, which would ultimately cause them to ache, and would be far less stable. It is a far more cumbersome and inefficient system than using a mouse. I said the same thing when I saw Minority Report. Technology is supposed to be about making life easier, but this would make things much, much more difficult.
The amazon.com comment is even more ridiculous. "We could walk through a 3D space where you have all the books lined up, and you could walk right up to a book." You mean like a fucking book shop!?! The reason Amazon is so successful is that it makes shopping much more convenient. All the functionality he mentions is already available at the click of a button, and he expects people to wander about in a (ridiculously expensive) "cocoon" to do the exact same thing. Given that you would not be able to take the book then and there, it is quite literally the worst of both worlds.
