DEVELOP3D - Technology for the product lifecycle

I’ll admit it, I have absolutely no idea how this is going to work, what it offers for the world of design and 3D control, but I find it curiously fascinating. I just got a press release from Cambridge Consultants about the launch of Suma, and I quote, “a uniquely intuitive yet very low-cost squeezable user-interface technology that creates a whole new way of interacting with computers. With nearly 60% of US households predicted to own 3D displays within 5 years*, Suma offers a full 3D highly sensitive control experience for gamers and others who expect a high degree of interaction.”

According to the release:

The patent-pending Suma sensor system translates the three dimensional deformation of a squeezed object into a software-readable form. Enabling highly sensitive control by finger movements and whole-hand grip in this way means that Suma-based devices can capture far more of the degrees of freedom of the hand than conventional controller technologies, without the need for cumbersome gloves or sensors.

A Suma-based device is like a traditional gaming controller with the normal casework replaced by a ‘Suma skin’. This incorporates the proprietary Suma sensor network at an incremental parts cost of less than US$1. Suma will enable companies developing a wide variety of products and applications - from gaming and design to music and creative arts - to unleash the full capabilities of both the human hand and the user’s imagination.

There you go. Love to hear what you think. I’m buggered if I can work out how this will work for design tools, but it is, as I said, fascinating. And I’ll be off to find out more when I get back to the UK.