Project Milo

For this post, I decided to look into Anne Martin's Oct. 12th post on Project Milo, an extension of Microsoft's new Project Natal (pronounced nah-TAHL). The idea of Milo combines aspects of virtual worlds (e.g. Second Life or the SIMS) with the incredible capabilities of Natal, allowing users to interact with a virtual boy on their screen named Milo.

The demo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDvHlwNvXaM) aired at the GameTrailers.com conference in 2009, and features a woman, Claire, who introduces us to Milo and demonstrates how one can interact with him.

Although the demo is short, we get a glimpse of several key points throughout:

1. Milo can recognize and react to Claire in a natural, casual conversation. He recognizes the things she says and responds in very relevant ways.
2. He picks up on Claire's nervous emotion and tone and is able to spit off a few jokes throughout the demo. In addition, he shows emotion in his facial expressions and the way he talks. In other words, he is a very realistic and dynamic character.
3. Using Natal's capabilities, Claire is able to "hand" Milo a drawing she created (the camera scans the paper and it shows up in Milo's hand); she also spends a few minutes playing in the water, where she can see her reflection and play in the water.

Although it's difficult to imagine technology like this is available or even right around the corner, demo spokesman Peter Molyneux claims the demo isn't "acted" and that the technology is "here" and "now." Project Milo seems to effectively bridge the divide between real and virtual, immersing users in a new world that's somewhere between the two. Natal is expected to be released in late 2010.

Microsoft LucidTouch

With all the focus on touch-enabled devices and multitouch computer screens, there's one problem that continually pops up...people's fingers are not good mice. It's difficult to get near-pixel accuracy with a finger that's no less than thirty pixels wide at the tip. Perhaps more importantly, touching the screen requires that you block your view of a part of the screen, even if it is just a finger. As a result, software design for touch-enabled devices must always take into account the lack of precision their users will have when operating the device.

Microsoft tries to come up with answer to this problem (at least partially) with the LucidTouch.

The idea behind this device was that allowing users to touch the back of the screen, they could always see the entire screen, and hopefully improve their touch precision. The device superimposes a semi-transparent hand on the screen based on your hand behind the screen, so you can in effect see and aim the cursor without blocking any screen real estate.

Although an intriguing device, and arguably more effective than traditional touch devices, the LucidTouch does little to address the problem associated with the size of a human finger in comparison to a mouse cursor, and the question of whether users will readily adopt this "backwards" approach has yet to be seen.

For more information on the LucidTouch, visit http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/techfest2008/video_g.aspx.