back to article Minority Report command sales system pushes Euro UAV

Continental aerospace colossus European Aeronautics Defence and Space (EADS) says that touchscreen interfaces aren't just for iPhones and people in movies. They're for everyday, mainstream present-day applications, such as controlling enormous killer robots in the sky. The Talarion concept at the Paris Airshow Aerospace/ …

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  1. Lionel Baden 1

    hey there

    nothing wrong with making cool looking tech with fancy graphics with whizzy outlines and beeping noises

    i still wish my keyboard beeped futuristically every time i press a button and when proccessing complex tasks lots of lights would flash and more beeping

    im sad i missed the late 80's early 90's :(

  2. adnim

    Not having any

    touch screen devices I wonder if they can be activated by contact other than that of a finger.

    It raises the question... If I sneeze on my tactical missile launch screen spraying it with saliva could I accidentally nuke another country?

    If my war bunker pals are shooting each other with rubber bands and one hits my screen...

    Are touch screens contact or capacitance activated? Yes I could Scroogle an answer, if I cared enough.

  3. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    So...

    ... why can't you control it by sticking your arms out to the side and leaning the way you want to go?

    And you could make it go faster by making Neooowwwww! noises...

    ... and you could attack things by going Dakka! Dakka! Dakka!

    And...

    ... sorry, the nurse is here with my medicine...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The General Atomics Avenger

    There's something called the General Atomics Avenger??? I don't know what it does, how much it costs or even what colour it is. I WANT ONE!!!

  5. Richard 12 Silver badge

    @Adnim

    Take your pick. You can get Capacitive, Resistive, Surface Acoustic Wave, Infra-Red and Video-based touchscreens.

    The biggest touchscreens are often done with a video camera - point the camera at the table and do some fancy jiggery-pokery to work out when contact is made and map it to the screen. This one is probably the least discriminatory as you don't actually have to touch the surface, just get close enough for the camera to think you did.

    Capacitive and SAW are probably the best ones, with Infra Red and Resistive competing for cheapest (depending on size)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    ...missing

    Paris wasn't even at the airshow, how disappointing.

  7. Robert Hill
    Black Helicopters

    @Mike Richards

    rotflmao...my thoughts exactly!!! But it had better come in black...

  8. Wile E. Veteran
    Coat

    Avenger?

    @Mike Richards

    Silly boy! I don't want the General Atomics Avenger, I want the Diana Rigg Avenger!

    I'll get my coat.

  9. Dave Bell

    Old and familiar

    This general sort of point-to-select interface has been around for a suprisingly long time, but it used to be light pens.

    Now it looks more like a bad Star Trek clone.

    Time to buy shares in screen-cleaner producers.

  10. adnim

    Thanks Richard 12

    As an incompetent musician I like the idea of surface acoustic waves, Could I play Zappa in the presence of one? And who is the more likely to start a nuclear war, proper musicians or the Sugarbabes?

  11. Lukin Brewer
    Go

    Loadsavengers!!!

    The name has been used, and used many times. The list in Wikipedia probably isn't a complete one, but will give you some idea.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenger

    The question is, will the GE killbot share any parts of its design with the Avro Avenger? Or even the Hillman Avenger?

  12. Joel
    Flame

    Command and Conquer?

    So basically, war will just be like playing a real-time, real-life game of command and conquer, but with awesome graphics and touch screen?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Old hat

    The defense equipment supplier I work for had real demonstration units that did Minority Report style interactive display systems many years before MR came out, but it was far too "far out there" for anyone to consider buying. I'm glad to see that someone is starting to catch up!

    It kind of reminds me why we have to produce boards with 20+ year lives and support, as opposed to the PC industries 6 months or so!

  14. Paris Hilton
    Paris Hilton

    Paris Hier Show

    Damn did I miss it? lost my phone/organiser.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Making-of

    The Production Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh3DlAyTYJ0

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