I've had exactly this idea before, but never pursued it because I couldn't get past the problem of shadows. It looks like this doesn't either. ie, if you are making a vertical pinch gesture and you happen to get it precise enough, it's possible that the top finger will be left in the dark and thus undetectable. Maybe because depth can be sensed, software can compensate.. I still imagine this will be a problem though, as well as resolution
Also, how well will this thing work in daylight and direct sun?
Most likely the detectors/emitters are in a diagonal crosshatch pattern, which would also greatly simplify detection and resolution on the axis perpendicular to the air bar:
As an app developer who has had to deal with these kinds of state issues for, now, over a decade (pre-iOS touch was also happening, kids), I can only say this: so what?
Code for the case, and move on. WIMP is a baseline from the 70's that we need to move on, from. So, even if tis but a single-click, with de-bounce, 'tis a step up from the option. Shadows are an option; but if you know that you're going to be coding for Air.bar anyway, its just something you need to inform the GUI design team about, and move on.
Me, personally: I love this. I think its exactly what we need. I've had a Leap Motion on my desktop with much whimsy; that I can now take a touch-upgrade with me on my MBPro means I might actually be able to attain my desired goal of having a consistent, common, grounded touch interface in all of my apps. On all supported platforms.
Would work well in clean rooms and hospitals. It's hard to find tech that you can install somewhere sterile and keep it sterile. Keyboards - nope, mouse? Hm, they are ok.
We wipe everything down with alcohol wipes, so this bar looks like the business. Especially if you can fit a glass case around it / over it. We could fit them into laminar air flow workstations. Cut some metal, fit some glass parts instant computer aided control. Neat.
Will keep an eye on this when it is an actual product. Might be fun to see what you can do with one of these when projecting the computer screen. Cheapo interactive whiteboard style.
This really needs to work, and be successful, and be a thing. In the audio-apps world, touch-based interfaces are encroaching deeply on the WIMP manifesto, and we laptop users suffer from having accessory envy whenever the latest popstar brings their iPad into the booth.
If there is a fast, convenient way to out-do the Magic Leap experience (and that's what this looks to be) then I think someone in AirBar Inc., needs to have an "Audio/Music-Industry Specialist" contact person doing the necessary work to get 100% buy-in from the synth/plugin guys.
It leaves me wanting. I don't only want to see how its applied. More importantly, I want to see how it is used. It's responsiveness, touch gestures happening and what not. I get it, installation is easy, but that's not what I'm here for.
Also the shadow of the person just freezes instead of leaving entirely from the frame, I believe this is the reason why it looks so unnatural and abrupt.
This is really sick, but it seems much more like a precursor technology that would eventually be subsumed into every laptop out there. Even then, is this really worth getting for the few times this would be drastically better over using a keyboard/mouse?
I would be interested in seeing how it compares to built-in touch screen technology. It seems like this product's focus is on retrofitting, whereas current laptop/screen manufacturers may get better performance or resolution or reduced overall costs using existing technologies.
Nifty idea, but I imagine it's going to get back to the same problem of putting a touchscreen on Windows to start with: Namely that most of the applications people want to run on Windows (Metro apps excluded) are not optimized for touch. The widgets one would want to use are too small to accurately be clicked on with a finger.