Elon Musk creating 'Iron Man' Interface

I am one of those who thinks Elon Musk is by far more awesome than the well known and highly celebrated out-of-water-wine-creating-character, but i was left unimpressed with this when i saw it for first time.

As pointed out by many, waving hands around in the air would be tiny bit tiresome. And the actual design of the CAD merlins were done in good old fashion.

I will take all my words back if he sends me Tesla Model S. :)
 
As a visualization aid, this sort of thing is great. For editing and data manipulation/entry, this sort of thing is great. For design... dunno. Designing the Merlin engine required *precision,* the sort of thing that meant someone had to sit down and run the numbers and carefully and precisely work out geometry and angles and curves and such. It's at best unclear to me that this sort of thing will be terribly helpful here, at least not until the computer is smart enough to know exactly what needs doing and do the actual design work for you (but then, the human won't need this sort of tech for the design, since the human won't be doing the designing).
 
I have a Leap Motion controller like in the video; if multiple Leap Motions were used, then it'd be reasonable / feasible for high levels of accuracy, but as it is, what I've found is that from a looking-up perspective, the sensors can easily get confused if your fingers get too close together. And when that happens, it can influence the calculated position of your hand, as it finds it's new palm center.

As for practicality; I can see it being useful for investigative / reviewing purposes, as well as presenting models; but as Orion said, unless you have hands of steel, you're not going to be sufficiently precise, at least not without sacrificing flexibility.

If a superduper capable holographic version of this came into being, with extremely advanced software, like in the Iron Man movies, then I could imagine it working (get a vertex or surface, move it roughly where you want, up pops that point's XYZ coordinates, and you just swipe the values to what you exactly want). Unfortunately, this isn't going to be happen any time soon; not to the extent where it's competitive with conventional means (possibly another 10 years?).
 
I use CAD on a daily basis and I can't think of how this would improve my productivity.
As others have mentioned, this might be a great review tool, but i wouldn't actually create anything with this.
As per the being able to spin/pan/zoom a model using hands, i can do all of that, with very good precision and intuitive feel using a spaceball from connexion in my left hand (which isn't even my preferred hand) and leave the right hand available for a three button mouse.
I have great respect for Musk, but both this interface (at least in this form) and 3D printing are nothing new/revolutionary nor synergistic as he'd make you believe.


now, i am curious about CATIA's Natural Sketch


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66FoxykeT0w


which could be great for the very beginnings of conceptual design to get the rough shape right. Anything requiring details would probably still require the good ol' 2D sketch using a mouse.
I think it'd be cool to have the electronic equivalent of a drafting table, with a touch sensitive big-ass screen replacing the paper and the ability to produce 3D shapes using Natural sketch or something similar. If I could use a light pen to sketch a circle where I want it - instead of using a mouse to click the plane, click the icon for a circle, then click the center, then click the radius, then click accept, and switch to the next command - then i could really start saving some time. I'm talking a 2x factor at least.
 
That video and another one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK0kTcJFnVk
are proof that Elon Musk has not the talent to fill the public with enthusiasm...

i wonder wen this Interface video show up modified on you tube
were on Display the Merlin engine is replace by Kerbal Space Program assembly hall ;D
 

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