Every single soldier who has seen action would have one or maybe more than one of those tales describing an incident in battle when his ‘intuition’ or as some describe it – ‘the gut feeling’ – saved his life from a potentially fatal scenario.

Battle-hardened soldiers do possess that sixth sense to smell danger. And though it is an intangible factor in a war zone, US Office of Naval Research (ONR) wants to develop a way to train soldiers to harness this inner voice to improve their chances of getting out of a battle alive and kicking.

What the US Military is looking at is a way to train young and fresh soldiers to develop inner voices which only battle-hardened veterans possess. That end result will be young, yet “experienced” super soldiers in the field, who are armed outside as well as inside to take on the enemy.

The ONR is looking at ways to develop further a soldier’s ability to detect and react to unique patterns of danger they are likely to experience during a situation in a battle field without actually consciously and intentionally analyzing them. The attempt is to imbibe the instincts and reflexes of battle-field veterans into soldiers who are basically in their first deployment.

Of course, to act instinctively the soldier has to learn to react to signals and situations as second nature. Researchers are trying to learn further about “implicit learning” techniques where the soldier gets exposed to such cues and then gets used to reacting to signals without actually knowing they are learning.

We are all used to implicit learning, day-to-day examples being learning to ride a bike or learning new languages.

But when it comes to applying it in battle situations, lots of other factors come into play, like individual differences of the soldiers involved, battle stress and fatigue among others.  So the ONR needs to develop an elaborate model revolving around their training method which mainly involves virtual battlefield simulations.

More research is on in this area and in all likelihood there will be a time when younglings will graduate out of military academies as “war veterans”, at least mentally.

Photo: Men Who Stare at Goats

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A user interacts with the Apple iPad's touch display.

With the touchscreen phenomenmom sweeping across the globe, more users are moving towards a “hands-on” intuitive navigational interface when mobile devices are concerned.  Gartner Research estimates that touchscreen mobile devices will surpass 362.7 million units in 2010, that’s an increase of 97% from 2009′s 184.3 million units sold.  By the year 2013, we can expect over half of all mobile devices worldwide to be touchscreen, and over 80% of them being in North America and Western Europe alone.

We see more touchscreen devices surfacing each day, Apple’s iPad shipping in just weeks, and companies like HTC and Motorola having shown more support for capacitive touch OSes like Google’s Android.  There’s no stopping it, we’re entering a time where intuitive interfaces are the most important factor for the end user.

“Touchscreens are no longer the preserve of high-end devices and are now being included in many midrange phones as more companies have been driving the consumer market for affordable touchscreen phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “As phone capabilities increase, consumers are becoming much more aware of the benefits of touch interfaces, and vendors are responding.”

The iPhone alone was a major launching pad for the mainstream acceptance of touchscreens. Sure Palm and others had their wack at it, but their user interfaces (Uis) never had the optimization and support from third-party developers to take it to such a level that Apple did.

Interface technology is the future for devices.  Touchscreens will eventually morph into sixth sense technologies, the screen will no longer be stuck to a device but projected upon furniture, appliances and even ourselves.  Our touch will simply become a motion or gesture where we interact with technology as it remains unseen.

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A concept photo shows a user manipulating multiple virtual surface displays.

It’s no secret that many modern technological marvels have roots in science fiction movies.  Microsoft’s latest creation reflects quite literally computer panels from cult entertainment TV shows like Star Trek. As a continuation of our Sixth Sense technology is coming, Microsoft demos Surface-based NUI report, we now have concept images of Microsoft’s multitouch table computer called the Mobile Surface.

Zhengyou Zhang, a researcher from Microsoft’s Research Labs in Redmond, is collaborating with Chunhui Zhang, from Microsoft’s Research Labs in Asia on the Mobile Surface project.  Their goal is to make similar technology available to users on the go, by investigating scenarios with common camera’s, a pico projector, and a mobile smartphone device.   The algorithms they have designed can scan 3D objects in real time, outputing a normal projection on any surface, may it be a coffee table, work desk, or wall.

A brief history on multitouch technology. It began in 1982 when the University of Toronto’s Input Research Group developed the first human-input multitouch system. With a frosted glass panel and a camera placed behind the glass, registering finger inputs on the glass surface became a reality.

Fast forward a few decades and we are at the start of the image touch revolution with fantastic devices being manufactured by companies such as the Light Touch and Virtual Keyboard.  These holographic technologies project an infrared image on any surface allowing users to interact with it. Microsoft who for all intents and purposes is always at the forefront of innovation, has given us access to video calls at the touch of our fingers.  They are also conducting research that allows 3 dimensional interactions with mobile phone devices and a camera-projector system allowing you to interact with everyday surfaces. With shades straight out of a Paramount set for Star Trek’s holodeck. A table, a sheet of paper and even your toilet roll can be transformed into an interactive screen.

Microsoft is also claiming that the kind of futuristic research they’re conducting will allow augmented reality in which a real world view is presented through computer imagery and 3D layered information presentations. If that’s not enough it will even support how to get a 3D object model in real time, therefore moving the projection of the contours of the object CAD model to the spatial intensity gradients in the image. That sounds like a mouthful doesn’t it? Well it is.

With the way technology is evolving, don’t be surprised to find a warp speed switch on your next car allowing you to transport inter-dimensionally.

"Our goal is to bring Microsoft Surface experience to mobile scenarios, and more importantly, to enable 3D interaction with mobile devices. We do research on how to transform any surface (e.g., a coffee table or a piece of paper) to Mobile Surface with a mobile device and a camera-projector system. Besides this, our work also includes how to get 3D object model in real-time, augmented reality and multiple-layer 3D information presentation." Photo: Microsoft

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A UK television spot for Dixons uses a Minority Report style interface for motion gesture-based interaction.

Aiming to bring the world to a level of ubiquitous integrated mobile computing, the Microsoft Research team have demonstrated a shrunken Mobile Surface application where a projection of a motion-touch interface can be placed on almost any flat object turning it into a responsive active display screen.

The system uses a small webcam and digital projector to project a seamlessly integrated interface where the user can respond with gestures creating interactions with the system.   Similar to the concept used in the film Minority Report, shown by PrimeSense at CES this past January, this technology will be the next wave in computer manipulation.

Gesture-based interfaces have been imagined by many great minds, like the ‘Sixth Sense’ technology shown by Pranav Mistry.  The video demonstration on TED India shows his technology creating a mobile interface that will integrate into many parts of your life, giving you access to information for making optimal decisions throughout your day.

Microsoft’s demo uses similar technologies, just less exciting in respects to its actual presentation.  A video by TechFlash shows researchers playing a simulated drum set which is projected on a table, allowing the user to tap his fingers or drumsticks to initiate the drum sounds.

Plans to integrate this technology in future games for the Project Natal game control system for Xbox 360 have led to advancements in natural user interfaces (NUI) and is essentially the Wii of the future.

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