Google has come along way from just being a search engine. Its own robust mobile OS, tons of cloud-based programs, and special projects like Project Glass. They aren’t stopping there though, a new patent has arrived that would allow for input via a set of gloves.

I know, you’re already thinking about Minority Report, aren’t you? More than likely some of the inspiration for the patent does come from that particular movie I’d wager. The idea of the glove in this patent is a to create a wearable device that has cameras on the fingertips, gyroscopes, a compass, accelerometer, motion sensors, CPU, memory and the whole ten yards. The smart glove isn’t meant to be a computer in and of itself though, instead its a sensing device that can interact with other things like an AR interface or even other Google technologies Project Glass. Imagine seeing with Project Glass and interacting with the seen displays via Google Gloves.

At the moment, this is a really cool idea, but for the moment there is no actual project or product attached to the patent- at least not publicly. The only problem I see is that there are too many components involved if you have to wear gloves, possibly glasses and other components. I think the glove computing like Minority Report might happen, but ultimately gloves will get replaced hopefully with something even smaller and unnoticeable.

What do you think about the idea of Google Gloves? Just a patent filed for basic experimenting or could we see it in a product in the near future?

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We are constantly at an age where we are inspired by science fiction movies like Star Trek and Total Recall, trying to turn them into science fact. We don’t quite have hover cars or lightsabers just yet, but it looks like we’re about to get the Minority Report motion-based experience on our smartphones thanks to a company called Leap Motion.

Leap Motion already has a tiny little device called the Leap that works in tandem with your computer. It’s like the Kinect, but in a much more advanced way. There are multiple camera sensors that can map out the user’s motion in a three-dimensional space, giving a much higher level of precision and accuracy than the Kinect. Minute movements of individual fingers can be mapped. The Leap also has much greater range in terms of distance and angle.

What they’re working on now is miniaturizing the technology even further–the Leap is about the size of a USB drive currently–such that it can be implemented in a smartphone or tablet. The cost of the device will be about $70 and they plan on releasing it between this December and February 2013. Theyr’e already taking pre-orders.

Touchscreens are cool and all, but you still have to touch something for them to work. The motion-based user interface from Leap Motion is entirely different and while it could be perceived as little more than a novelty at the moment, the long-term implications could prove intriguing. One major issue that comes to mind, though, is how to prevent the Leap from detecting inadvertant movements. I imagine it would get quite annoying if you’re zooming and panning through an image when you really just want to point out something to your friend. Perhaps something as simple as a specific motion to activate and de-activate the motion controls could help.

Have a look at the demo video from Leap Motion below. It’s shown in the context of being used with a computer, but the same fundamental concept can be applied to a smaller screen too.

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It seems like every time we turn around we have another technology pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible. We’ve all seen the glove-controlled PCs in Minority Report, right? That’s sort of what MIT’s Media Lab has accomplished, wedding a glove/attachment with an iPad. The video the group released shows drawing objects in 3D real time. The project website for T(ether) says that the new technology is a spatially aware display that allows people to interact with volumetric data, from the looks of it, the iPad camera is also involved in tracking the data and the user’s head position in 3D space.

While this looks pretty cool and could have some interesting uses, I wouldn’t expect things like the machines in Minority Report to become commonplace anytime soon. On the other hand, with Windows 8 due out later this year, we can expect touch to become more and more commonplace in the next few years and that’s certainly a step in the right direction.

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Remember the touchscreen computer in Minority Report? Well, it seems one savvy developer has managed to create something at least sort-of similar. This is the strange bastard child DDRBoxman, he combines a Microsoft Kinect, a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a computer, and a lot of mad scientist work.

Together, all these vastly different tools manage to work together to bring us a projected image on a wall that you can actually control through touch. While I am a computer geek myself, I won’t pretend to understand everything involved in making this combo work seamlessly together.

I do realize that it involves a ton of work, such as a specially complied Android ROM that allows the phone to talk to the computer. From there the computer is used to send commands to the headset that it receives from the Kinect. A projector is the last piece of this puzzle, which simply makes the stunning visual that appears on the wall.

While not a practical solution, nor the most particular way to use your phone, it is an amazing feat and certainly worth a little bit of drooling time on my part. Bravo to the person who managed to piece this all together and get it to work!

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