[Kickaha]

I got on Slashdot.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...id=187&tid=189

I'm the Jason Smith mentioned as co-inventor.

[Mac+]

congrats kick - I remember you mentioning this project in a thread a while back. Glad to see you're now getting some publicity for it! Very cool idea - I hope you make "a squillion" from it!

[709]

Very nice, Kickaha! Congratulations.

Is this part of what you've been working on in secrecy for the last few years, or is this a side-project?

[Kickaha]

This was the 'little side-project', now spinning horribly out of control.

[Mac+]

it shouldn't be too horrible - sounds like you're well and truly on a winner... potential market could be huge.

[Brad]

Where's the sourceforge link?

[Crusader]

Wow, cool stuff man. /. and Wired! I'd be pretty freakin happy. Now you have to go patent it, before Apple decides they want it in 10.5...

[autodata]

Very cool. Too bad the university controls it.

[Chinney]

This sounds like it is not only a ‘cool’ idea, but something that would be a practical, ‘natural’ advancement in interactive capabilities. By ‘natural’, I mean that it has the potential to be a technology overlay that blends seamlessly into how end-users actually work. I hope that this really takes off. Well done.

[HOM]

I remember the sneak peak you gave at .com

This is a really cool technology and I can't wait to see it 'ship' as a commercial product. I wonder who owns it? I assume it's the Uni, but I wonder if they offer co-ownership.

[darshu]

Originally Posted by HOM I remember the sneak peak you gave at .com This is a really cool technology and I can't wait to see it 'ship' as a commercial product. I wonder who owns it? I assume it's the Uni, but I wonder if they offer co-ownership.

Indeed, that's a question on my mind as well that I'm a little too lazy to search through the University's policies for At my school (University of Waterloo) all IP rights and ownership of any product or research developed at the school, whether you are a student, researcher or professor, is owned by you. However you automatically grant the University a royalty-free, perpetual, non-revokable license such that they can use it for whatever purposes they wish as well.

[InactionMan]

Even if Kickaha is richly compensated for this, it won't stop Apple from hiring him to create a "Facetop-Killer" for 10.5. Unless he signed a non-competition agreement with his University.

[Kickaha]

It's kind of weird here...

As employees, UNC has first rights to the IP. We sign it over to them explicitly.

BUT...

We then get royalties on licensing fees. No, I'm not going to say what the terms are, but they're much better than most universities, or even companies for that matter.

It works out pretty well, overall... the university pays for any and all patent costs, they have a cadre of patent lawyers at their call in case anyone infringes, and they handle all the NDAs, licensing, and such.

More or less, it's like we have them on retainer to handle all the business and legal crud, so we can concentrate on the research.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by InactionMan Even if Kickaha is richly compensated for this, it won't stop Apple from hiring him to create a "Facetop-Killer" for 10.5. Unless he signed a non-competition agreement with his University.

I'm sleep deprived.

I'm not stupid.

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Brad Where's the sourceforge link?

Brat.

[hmurchison]

Duuuuuuuude cut your hair!


Just kidding. Congrats Kickaha! I read the wired article..you got lots of pub. Guess the job offers will be rollin' in now not to much the hot babes in NC ready and willin' to take advantage

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by hmurchison Duuuuuuuude cut your hair!

Fascist!

Just kidding. Congrats Kickaha! I read the wired article..you got lots of pub. Guess the job offers will be rollin' in now not to much the hot babes in NC ready and willin' to take advantage

Well my wife might have something to say about that...

[ThunderPoit]

what, shes not the open minded type?

[drewprops]

Since this is now "in the news", is it safe to talk about real-world consumer applications for this technology? I'd like you to pitch your best consumer app to us...

[Brad]

Originally Posted by drewprops Since this is now "in the news", is it safe to talk about real-world consumer applications for this technology?

Right!

Like, when when will you be including it with Adium to make it the ultimate iChat killer?

[ZO]

any chance y'all working on PC drivers for iSight

[Brad]

Originally Posted by ZO any chance y'all working on PC drivers for iSight

The iSight should act as a standard DV cam, IIRC. If you have a program that'll accept video input over FireWire from a regular camera, the iSight should work fine with WIndows XP's default drivers. Of course, your PC will have to have a 6-pin port (not just 4-pin) so it can provide power to the iSIght. Also, this will only do video and not audio.

[ast3r3x]

Originally Posted by Brad The iSight should act as a standard DV cam, IIRC. If you have a program that'll accept video input over FireWire from a regular camera, the iSight should work fine with WIndows XP's default drivers. Of course, your PC will have to have a 6-pin port (not just 4-pin) so it can provide power to the iSIght. Also, this will only do video and not audio.

AKA macs rule, PC's drool

<I really hope nobody read what I had below here>

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by drewprops Since this is now "in the news", is it safe to talk about real-world consumer applications for this technology? I'd like you to pitch your best consumer app to us...

Heh. Well, simply put... it has utility where ever you would normally need to point, but not have a mouse or trackpad handy, or if the gesture itself adds information to the situation.

Say you're programming hot and heavy, and you need to move the cursor to another point on the screen (another window, in another app perhaps). You can take your hand off the keyboard, and move the mouse, or maybe you prefer to Cmd-Tab/Cmd-~ to get to the window, and then arrows (with modifiers) to move the cursor.

Or you could lift your finger a little ways off the keyboard, into the field of view of a properly placed camera, make a flick with it, and do the same thing, ready to type again.

On the other hand, say you're on stage giving a keynote^h^h^h^h^h^h^htalk. You want to highlight something on the screen, by pointing at it. The 'normal' way would be to use a laser pointer and make a teeeeeeny little dot that, if the audience is large, some folks are never going to see properly. If you're really set up, you could have a wireless mouse, and the cursor would pop up and do the schizo bee dance around what you want to point out.

Or you could raise your hand into the view of the camera that's trained on you, at which point your image shows up as an overlay over the slides, and you can essentially walk right into the slide and interact with it. Not only is it extremely obvious what you are trying to point out (not just your fingertip, but your hand and arm draw the eye as well), but the audience sees you, larger than life, so their attention isn't split. When you're done, drop your hand out of frame, and your video fades, leaving the slide content crystal-clear.

Of course, then there are the distributed collaboration applications... anytime you have two people at different locations who need to work on the same document, regardless of whether it's C code, a Word doc, or blueprints, this is your solution. Gotta run for now, but I can describe that more later, or you can go hit the FAQ we set up at http://www.cs.unc.edu/~smithja/facetop/

[sunrain]

Not just cool. Really cool. I've been excited about this tech since you first mentioned it at .com. Congrats.

Can we say that this whole 'hands-free' interface is somewhat like what is in the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise?

Tim

[Kickaha]

Yeah, except *he* had to put on gloves.

Actually, I went and saw Minority Report about a month after whipping up the first prototype of this, and right when we were approached by UNC regarding the IP of it.

We actually had to ask the lawyers if a Hollywood movie was something that needed to be included as potential prior art. Hee. (Answer: no, it's fictional.)

[Windswept]

Hey, Kicks.

One way to see this is that ALL those years of schooling, including any time spent *procrastinating* , paid off in the flash of a second.

We *are* who we are; and we *are* that way as a result of 'causes', both primary (external) and secondary (internal) (strictly my 'own' flawed terminology, btw). Just think, if you hadn't engaged in procrastination here and there along the way, you might NOT have been there that day for "Eureka!" to occur. Am I correct? Yes??? I thought so. heh (she says smugly)

Anyway, I am so incredibly proud of you. Looks to me like it was really ALL your idea - or 98% at least.

I think you guys need to get a cam-corder and make an actual video demonstration of the whole set-up, starting from a far corner of the room, showing you both at different computers, and showing you both pointing and acting-out a demonstration. A motion picture is worth a million words, whereas those 'stills' can be confusing. I can tell from reading the slashdot and other comments that some people are unclear about how facetop works.

Is this a dumb idea, or whaddaya think? If it's dumb, you can say so, and I promise I won't cry or sulk. Honest!

I can't believe you've had to keep quiet about this for all these months! What an ordeal. Yes, indeedy. The girls WILL be throwing themselves at your feet.

If you don't get rich from the license fee royalties, fret not. You'll be SO sought after by SO many companies; and they will offer vast sums to snatch you up and enfold you into their corporate bosom ( ). The American dream in action before our very eyes.

Maybe you should start writing a 'book' for quick publication (in your 'spare' time - hahaha!) for the consumer, who would consist of academic, medical, business, design, education types. In fact, I can't think of 'any' endeavor involving two or more people that *wouldn't* benefit from the application of your technology. The book would be large-size paperback - or even magazine format, for ready sale, and would suggest facetop applications for as many industries and professions as possible, WAY before companies start paying license fees.

I think you could dramatically increase the reach of your technology with such a publication. The 'book' wouldn't be to explain 'how' facetop works, though you 'could' do that for those who might be interested; but simply would be suggestions for the myriad ways people in every profession could apply facetop to increase the speed and accuracy of collaborative efforts of all kinds. (Damn! This is really SO exciting!!!) You could advertise the volume in the journals of various professions; OR offer the pertinent chapter(s) as downloads on websites of various professions (for a fee, of course!).

If there are specialties for which you aren't sure of the usefulness of facetop, you could contact those departments at your university and have someone write something up with specific application ideas. Tell them UNC would benefit, and their participation would be to everyone's interest, yadda, yadda.

Think of government and military applications; think of NASA. The mind boggles at the possibilities. And this was a *side-project*. I'm loving every minute of this, Jason, I really am. I'm SO happy for you!

Oh, by the way. You *really* should be keeping a journal now, to record your thoughts/feelings for posterity, AND for when you are compelled, down the road, by intense public demand to cough up an autobiography. A bestseller - I can predict already. I will buy the first 50 copies, so I can 'wow' my friends with a book about 'this famous, brilliant guy' I know. Sigh.

[ast3r3x]

Originally Posted by Carol [snip]

That's interesting, I'm actually hoping you don't do to well so I don't feel like I haven't gained as many accomplishments. Real different way of looking at things huh carol?

I'm just playing, good job kick.

[Kickaha]

See? I knew I could count on you guys to keep my feet on the ground.

Thanks, all. It's been a weird few days.