This field is the perfect example of how utterly destructive our current intellectual property laws are. Myron Krueger pioneered the entire field in the 1970′s on main frames at universities and wrote two books on what he called “artificial reality,” long before “VR.” His generic name for the “Eyetoy, Kinect, Mandala, CyberScape, etc.” technology – anything that uses a video-like sensor to map images into an interactive computer-based system – was VideoPlace, on which he had a patent, which is now, I think, run out. During the life of the patent, numerous companies and individuals developed “augmented reality” systems, perhaps starting with “Mandala” on the Amiga system in 1986. All of the systems worked well enough that there was a world of potential applications, but everyone was running scared of Myron’s patent. I spoke with Myron on numerous occasions,the last time in 1999, I think, as a journalist covering this kind of cutting edge digital tech. His position, as I understood it, was that he just wanted to ensure that the ideas were not misused, but that apparently meant that he had to personally supervise and sign off on everything. I also spoke with perhaps five or six independent developers of VideoPlace APPs, both on the Amiga and the PC, when it finally became a powerful enough platform, and the impression I got from all of them was that they lived in fear of a letter or phone call from an attorney, should their product actually take off in the marketplace.

As to practical APPs, one that I recall running on the Amiga using Mandala enabled a quadraplegic kid here in Santa Ana, at the Blind Children’s Center, to play music. He could move one finger of one hand, but using a macro lens, that was enough that he could play a virtual drum kit, one of the Mandala demo APPs that came with the package.

Carel Struycken (“Lurch”) carried this several steps further, developing physical rehap APPs on the Mandala clone, CyberScape, that were targetted at people who were physically disabled, usually with injuries involving reduced mobility.

Bottom line: there were and are a world of APPs to be developed for this system, unless one of the big boys steps in with patent infringement claims and then buys them out, as has happened all too many times. BTW, Sony could have dominated this whole field several years ago with the EyeToy, but they first released a SDK to the public and then apparently retracted it, which was unbelievably DUMB. Mandala in 1986 had a fully user programmable system, all done with a graphical GUI and mouse that allowed total control of the computer from the video input image. Sony could have done the same and owned that market…

Nobody questioning the authenticity of this device? The company’s website is exclusively a sales pitch and nothing more. The precision claimed would make it highly competitive for manufacturing applications where precision positioning is required … and yet the company seems to be targetting the game market. Odd, since 8 cubic feet is a box with 2 ft a side which is very small compared to the kinects’ volume and distances, right? Maybe useful as a device for those with severely limited mobility, say, positioned on a wheelchair arm for the recognition of minute hand gestures. As for MacDo’s … the current button system is far simpler and more accurate and yet the customer has still not been given the opportunity to use it for input.

Actually, use these at the McDonald’s point of sale (even at the drive-through) and let people point to their food choices… if they are unable to use the interface, then it would summon a human order taker.