A computer without a mouse or keyboard, a screen ball: at the Grenoble Computer Laboratory, research teams are developing alternatives to current computer equipment.
In front of Quentin Zoppis, a screen. Small green targets light up, which the computer science student at Grenoble Alpes University tries to point at one after the other. But on the desktop, no mouse or touchpad. The young man simply taps the surface of the table using a small device he wears on his index finger.
“The cameras that are arranged around the screen follow the different markers that I have on my finger, he explains. With this very precise monitoring of the position of the markers, we are able to know at what distance and where is the surface of the finger which will be in contact with the table.” And therefore to control what is happening on the screen with the tip of your finger.
The markers worn by Quentin Zoppis, which allow him to control a cursor without a mouse or touch device.
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© FTV / F. CERONI
This innovation is developed in Saint-Martin-d’Hères within the Grenoble Computer Science Laboratory (LIG). It is intended to be an alternative to current office environments. “We achieve the precision of a mouse and the speed of a touch screen“, summarizes Quentin Zoppis. Either “The best of both worlds“. A study, carried out on six participants and published last July, highlighted an improvement in pointing throughput of 14% on average after eight sessions of use. Ultimately, the team hopes to be able to equip all fingers with the user – who could then simply do without a keyboard.
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Without a mouse or keyboard, IT is reinvented in a laboratory in Grenoble
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©FTV / C. ANTIGA, F. CERONI, M. BAZA
Within the laboratory, computer tools take an even more surprising form. Like this polystyrene ball with reflective markers, called “the sphere”. Coupled with glasses equipped with tracking cameras, it should make it easier to manipulate 3D digital objects. In the hands of François Bérard, it displays a set of virtual bricks that the teacher-researcher moves by moving or rotating the object.
The LIG, in Grenoble, develops experimental devices like the “sphere”, on the right.
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© FTV / F. CERONI
“Interacting with 3D scenes is quite complicated if you do it with the mouse“, he explains. “sphere” offers a different approach to devices combining virtual reality headset and joystick. “We handle it seated, with both hands, with elbows tighthe explains before taking part in the demonstration himself. This will allow us to be both more precise than with a hand wandering in space and to work for longer: we will have less fatigue.”
Two examples of fundamental research carried out within the structure, the result of a partnership between the CNRS, Inria, Grenoble Alpes University and the INP. “What we want is to test the interaction and see if there are any benefits“, explains François Bérard, for whom this type of work can have “a very broad impact“.”If, thanks to our research, we manage to save even half a second each time we click on a graphic button on the screen, that is half a second times 200 times – because we make 200 clicks in per day, times a billion people who use computers every day.“
One of the applications of the “sphere”; the manipulation of medical data such as a rib cage scanner.
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© FTV / F. CERONI
From there to imagine ourselves all hands on deck in a few years? “HAS At the moment, it requires a large infrastructure“, tempers François Bérard. Still at an experimental stage, the tool should go through a research and development phase before appearing on desks. Architecture or medicine could then constitute possible fields of application.
