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I'll have to go against the grain here, but this isn't anything special. The Leap has been around for a good while, the Occulus Rift has been around for a good

I'll have to go against the grain here, but this isn't anything special. The Leap has been around for a good while, the Occulus Rift has been around for a good while, and 3D Laser Sintering has been around for a while, along with every other technology they're using for this application. Also, I believe they're the wrong people to use it. Making the feedback involved visual instead of mathematical/geometrical has it's applications (quickly looking through the design), but it'll still have to be made to precise tolerances, and that's an engineers job, not a sculptors. On the other hand, it's perfect for sculptors and designers. If their setup is considerably improved in resolution, designers can get very fast visual feedback, and trying out things suddenly becomes very cheap. Architects can mold parts of their buildings, your furniture can get those last brushes before it's milled out, and your phone can be molded to "just perfect". But this isn't a Musk thing, nor is it an Iron Man thing, the idea has been floating around for a good while, the tech is there, they just went ahead and made it. That's not groundbreaking, and it isn't revolutionizing manufacturing.

mattmanser 13y ago
the tech is there, they just went ahead and made it. That's not groundbreaking And that's where we disagree. To me that's the very definition of groundbreaking.
- deleted 13y ago
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- samuelfine 13y ago
  Exactly. If "going ahead and making it" was the only barrier, why didn't it exist yet?
  - solistice 13y ago
    Well, technically it exists. http://robbietilton.com/blog/?p=1589 http://robbietilton.com/blog/?p=1589 https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~adam/airharp/ https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~adam/airharp/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLqLmvL75B0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLqLmvL75B0 Robert Tiltons application is almost everything Musk seems to have done, except the lack of interfacing with CAD software (for example gesture based modification). The other 2 links are, whilst only tangentially related, really cool, so I thought I'd post them as well. So really, the question isn't "Why didn't it exist yet?" it's "Why was Elon's system featured on thenextweb, and Roberts wasn't?"
nothingspecial 13y ago
Just like the world wide web was nothing special since at the time it was invented * tcp/ip and the internet had been around for a good while * client/server document browsing had been around for a good while and * hypertext documents with clickable links generated from markup had been around for while (microsoft help viewer) The ideas behind the WWW had been floating around for a good while. TBL just went ahead and made it.
- deleted 13y ago
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- grannyg00se 13y ago
  Crockford's story [1] behind the genesis of JSON is similar. Everything was already there, but he's the one who formalized it gave it an official home. That helped propel it to its current level of popularity. The fact that he didn't create javascript, the internet, the www, tcp, etc is not relevant. [1] http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/08/11/video-crockford-json/ http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/08/11/video-crockford-json/
tuananh 13y ago
To me it's like Apple. They doesn't invent any ground-breaking technology. They just combine them; use them at the right time.
ErrantX 13y ago
> they just went ahead and made it Upon such things, many successes are based :)
- solistice 13y ago
  I'm not disagreeing with you. It's just that they take all this tech other people have worked out, slapped it together and are now happily implying that they're somehow visionaries, and that they should get credit for that and everything else they're using.
  - grannyg00se 13y ago
    Or they are simply implying that they are using bleeding edge tech to their advantage as much as possible. And they aren't afraid to put on a little show and tell to the masses about it. Given his positions in public companies, it's not a bad move.

mattmanser 13y ago

the tech is there, they just went ahead and made it. That's not groundbreaking And that's where we disagree. To me that's the very definition of groundbreaking.

deleted 13y ago
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samuelfine 13y ago
Exactly. If "going ahead and making it" was the only barrier, why didn't it exist yet?
- solistice 13y ago
  Well, technically it exists. http://robbietilton.com/blog/?p=1589 http://robbietilton.com/blog/?p=1589 https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~adam/airharp/ https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~adam/airharp/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLqLmvL75B0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLqLmvL75B0 Robert Tiltons application is almost everything Musk seems to have done, except the lack of interfacing with CAD software (for example gesture based modification). The other 2 links are, whilst only tangentially related, really cool, so I thought I'd post them as well. So really, the question isn't "Why didn't it exist yet?" it's "Why was Elon's system featured on thenextweb, and Roberts wasn't?"

nothingspecial 13y ago

Just like the world wide web was nothing special since at the time it was invented * tcp/ip and the internet had been around for a good while * client/server document browsing had been around for a good while and * hypertext documents with clickable links generated from markup had been around for while (microsoft help viewer) The ideas behind the WWW had been floating around for a good while. TBL just went ahead and made it.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
grannyg00se 13y ago
Crockford's story [1] behind the genesis of JSON is similar. Everything was already there, but he's the one who formalized it gave it an official home. That helped propel it to its current level of popularity. The fact that he didn't create javascript, the internet, the www, tcp, etc is not relevant. [1] http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/08/11/video-crockford-json/ http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/08/11/video-crockford-json/

tuananh 13y ago

To me it's like Apple. They doesn't invent any ground-breaking technology. They just combine them; use them at the right time.

ErrantX 13y ago

> they just went ahead and made it Upon such things, many successes are based :)

solistice 13y ago
I'm not disagreeing with you. It's just that they take all this tech other people have worked out, slapped it together and are now happily implying that they're somehow visionaries, and that they should get credit for that and everything else they're using.
- grannyg00se 13y ago
  Or they are simply implying that they are using bleeding edge tech to their advantage as much as possible. And they aren't afraid to put on a little show and tell to the masses about it. Given his positions in public companies, it's not a bad move.