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| Image via DisneyResearch.com |
Disney Research has released information on one of their latest inventions called Aireal. The compressed air generator has been described as a ‘cigar-smoking Microsoft Kinect.’ Disney Research describes it in a bit more detail;
“The new technology uses controlled puffs of compressed air – something akin to smoke rings – to create the impression of a ball bouncing off a hand, of an arm tingling from the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, or of the rippling of air as a seagull circles a user’s head."
Unlike jets of air, which are hard to maintain and control
over long distances, these rings of air, called vortices, can travel relatively
long distances without dissipating and can be targeted with accuracy.”
The research right now is focused on gaming, with Mircosoft’s
Kinect depth cameras and Nitendo’s Wii gesture-controlled games being a central
focus of the technology. Aireal is fairly inexpensive to build according to the
researchers and can be scaled to any size allowing for multiple Aireals to be
used in a single setting.
The researchers seem to think the technology could be a
major player in the blurring of the natural and technological realms. “One of our long-term visions is to create
complete 3D shapes in the air,” Rajinder Sodhi, the lead researcher on Aireal, said.
“Imagine holding out your hand and feeling someone’s face. This will start
truly eroding the boundary between real and virtual.”
