Are you one of those people who keep your TV and computer on at the same time, simultaneously watching the one while looking things up on the other? If so, you might like SeeSpace's new InAiR Augmented TV system. In the case of a regular 2D television, it superimposes layered internet content over top of the existing picture, allowing you to view both at once. And if you've got a 3D TV, those layers appear to be floating in the space between you and the screen, zooming towards or away from you as selected.
Unveiled today at CES, the hardware end of the system consists solely of the InAiR Smart HDMI Adapter, which is an internet-connected device that the user installs between their TV and set-top box. Once fired up, it overlays multiple translucent layers of internet content on the TV picture, as desired by the user.
While that content could be anything, SeeSpace suggests that the technology might be particularly useful for adding interactive informational content to programming. Viewers watching a car race, for example, could check out a map of the track or stats on the drivers, as the race is in progress.
Instead of having to use a mouse or keyboard to navigate that content, users instead use simple swipe and scroll commands on their Android or iOS mobile device, using its screen as a track pad. Gesture control is also possible via a Kinect or Leap device. According to the company, if gesture control is combined with a 3D TV, the result is "a true Minority Report experience."
From what we've seen at CES, the system appears to work quite smoothly.
SeeSpace will be launching a Kickstarter campaign later this month, at which point it will be possible to preorder an InAiR Smart HDMI Adapter for US$99. Shipping is expected to begin in the second half of the year, assuming the device reaches production.
A visualization of the system can be seen in the video below.
Source: SeeSpace
