I’d have to sat it’s pretty much just another, “hey, isn’t this cool”, moment for the techno geeks. There have been promises of better interfaces in tne past. Custom keyboards, flashy designer mice, trackballs, and even some rudimentary voice activated software interfaces. The bottom line is that while the interface is important, it’s not a big problem for most people. I don’t see this hand waving as anything of a breakthrough. I just hope I don’t accidentally make an edit while I’m reaching for my coffee.
Brett
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/10 at 08:47 AM
Brett802 you’re absolutely right that these type of things are often more just showy flashy than anything real, at least at this point in time. I would say it’s often cost that keeps some of these things from market when we’re talking about input devices. But we’ve been using mice and keyboard and tablets for so long it HAS to move somewhere in the future ....
Posted by Scott Simmons on 01/10 at 10:26 AM
Did the video show how you actually did any editing? i.e. grab two clips, stick them on a timeline and trim?
Posted by MichaelSanders on 01/10 at 01:14 PM
I am also unimpressed, as a pro. I too failed to see any kind of even simple editing etc.
If he’s got something there I’ll wait one of the established NLE developers to swallow it.
I don’t suppose he’s going for the pro market though.
Posted by wsmith on 01/10 at 02:55 PM
Now you can move your entire arm to do something you could do moving just one finger! Impressive!
Even on Minority Report this system looks useless. Do they expect you to stand up for 8 hours while working on a commercial or movie?
With all those arm movements you would end up with lots of pain in the back and arms.
Posted by Ivan Oliveira on 01/11 at 02:09 AM
Hi Scott,
I agree there will be changes in the interface in the future. Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates said in past interviews that speech based interfaces will be the wave of the future. There has been a quantum leap in technology on the speech recognition front. The “buzz” is that both PCs and Macs will feature speech recognition that will use the web cam on your computer to read your facial expressions to add to current language recognition software to make it very accurate. The reason Adobe has added the speech search technology to their software is that they see the future coming. There is no end to where this technology can go when combined with AI advances. Imagine this future exchange:
Me: Can you back up the system?
Computer: This hard drive or the entire system?
Me: The entire system, please.
Computer: Would you like me to back up the entire system at this same time every day?
Me: No, just today. Execute!
Computer: Executing system back up. You can cancel system back up by saying, “cancel.”
Very Star Trek (ha).
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/11 at 11:52 AM
I think there is room for new paradigms in user interfaces, however to succeed they need to be as efficient as the current ones. I don’t think anything that takes the elbows off the table is very workable. Fine control would be like trying to type on screen with a Wiimote.
Editing is fine detail work, and like other small scale skilled crafts, is best carried out on a workbench. I think the best form factor for a touch or gesture based interface would be a large sloped surface like a drafting table. Maybe add upright displays for non-interactive data like video playback and meters.
You can’t get any faster than clicking a single button to execute a function. Any programmed gesture would need to be nearly as fast. I think the only advantage to going to such an interface over my pen and keyboard would be the ability to handle different parts of the interface at the same time. For instance, open two sources in their own windows and scrub one with each hand while looking for a shot, or find a bin and load a clip with the left hand while the right one scrolls the timeline to the place I want to put it.
At the moment I keep as few buttons as possible on my Avid interface, because using them is like typing with one finger. Multitouch display would make it worthwhile to use those buttons again, but it would be a challenge to get as many onscreen as I have in my keyboard with all of their modifiers. Voice control could help, but I think I would want to develop “code words” for common functions that aren’t more than a syllable or two.
Minority Report is a good way to show an audience what you are doing, but real work needs to be kept within arms reach.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/11 at 01:55 PM
” For instance, open two sources in their own windows and scrub one with each hand while looking for a shot..”
now we’re going in circles - that is exactly how i used to edit news items on Beta using Sony’s BVE600. Yes, it was fast and i do miss that level of physical interaction with the jog/shuttle wheel.
If only interface designers could combine the speed of a two/three machine edit controller, with a tactile feedback system that worked by touch rather than stylus/mouse and that would work with your own choice of software app, then i’d be interested.
Until then, i’m not even considering the modern dance approach to editing!
Adam
Posted by lightningad on 01/12 at 04:41 AM
This looks like an application of this:
http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/
Posted by DanConklin on 01/13 at 11:16 AM
I love how he makes it look like it’s so easy to just “grab elements” from your favorite movies, and kinda glosses over the fact that they were all “cut out” (roto’d?!) by someone…
How many non-pros look at this and think it’s just that simple?
Still very cool stuff, although we could of course argue all day about the potential usefulness of it all.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/14 at 03:07 PM
