Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!think!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!BU-CS.BU.EDU!bzs
From: bzs@BU-CS.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Interesting note in input devices
Message-ID: <8803251909.AA18070@bu-cs.bu.edu>
Date: 25 Mar 88 19:09:52 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 112


Around the middle of the article there's a description of a product
which uses a glove as an input device. Not new, but as far as I know
this is the first orderable, commercial version I've seen for the
general public. The discussion list it comes from is discussing
extensions to the X window protocol.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 88 10:26:21 PST
From: longo%flume.DEC@decwrl.dec.com ( Mark Longo)
To: xtensions@athena.mit.edu
Subject: multi-dimensional input

 
 
 
	For general consideration, here are a few notes about what 
	multidimensional input devices are used for and some questions
	about what this means to the input extension protocol.
 
 
	Picking:
 
	When picking vectors/surfaces from a 3D display model, pick
	computation can be significantly simplified if the pick input
	device reports 3D positional information.
 
 
	Drawing:
 
	Take for instance a 3D touch pad.  A drawing application might
	use the Z dimension of 3D input to control line width.  As a
	human pushes harder on the pad, the line becomes broader.  This
	same technique is also useful for controlling color shading.
 
 
	Motion Buttons:
 
	Further, a 3D touch pad (or other 3D device) can deliver
	"button" type functionality.  A human uses the touch pad to
	position a cursor over a display button and "pushes" the button
	by increasing finger pressure on the pad.  This example is
	interesting since a "button" event is not generated by the
	hardware, but rather, motion events are reported in the Z
	direction.  At some level in the window system, the Z value of
	device input is seen to cross a predetermined threshold and
	is interpreted as a "button" event.  (in this case, should the
	protocol event be for button press/release or motion?)
 
 
	N-Dimensions:
 
	Increasingly, we are seeing application for multi-dimensional
	input devices.  The above examples are for three dimensions,
	however more dimensions are useful.  Input devices that report
	six dimensional motion are useful (X-Y-Z position and
	yaw-pitch-roll).
 
	Initially, one might guess that input devices having many
	dimensions would be awkward to use and therefore uncommon.
	But Bill Buxton, a human interface researcher and designer,
	researcher on input devices, and consultant to Yamaha Music
	Corp. on synthesizer design, points out that multidimensional
	input can be very natural.  Witness musical instruments.  Many
	have scores of dimensions for input, yet they are readily
	mastered and exploited far beyond the imagination of the
	designers.
 
	An interesting example of multi-dimensional input is an input
	glove, currently on the market.  VPL Research Inc. of Palo
	Alto, Calif., demonstrated what was perhaps the most unusual
	product of the 1986 Summer Conference Electronics Show.  The
	Z-Glove, a $39.95 peripheral for the Commodore 64 computer,
	looks like a regular glove but includes sonar and bend sensors
	that describe a user's hand position in three-dimensional
	space, determine its tilt, and follow any finger movements. 
 
	VPL demonstrated the Z-Glove with a paint program that changed
	brush type with changes in finger position, and a music program
	that changed pitch, instruments and volume as the user
	"conducted" an invisible orchestra while wearing the glove. 
 
	Exploration of the potential of human interaction with
	graphical display is just now beginning.  The input side of the
	interaction model remains crude.  A quote from Harry Hersh,
	author of 'The Human Factor': "Graphical output approaches
	reality at this point in time.  Graphical input is still at the
	level of the fat crayons they give you in kindergarden."
 
 
	Questions:
 
	As witnessed in the success of the Macintosh, a robust and
	intuitive human interface is very valuable.  As human interface
	designs become more sophisicated and as the cost of high
	performance workstations continues to drop over the next few
	years, the use and need for multi-dimensional input support in
	X will increase.  Are two or three input dimensions enough? 
	What allowances should be made in the input extension protocol
	to generalize input events to 'N' dimensions? 
 
	Should extension events be chained to allow N-dimensions of
	position (motion)?  Using the above functional models as
	examples, what support should exist on which side of the wire?
 
	Farther along, how do we move from the simplistic I/O model
	represented by X to an input design that supports a multi-media
	workstation environment?  How might sound input be incorporated
	into the input stream?