Zolo is a new user interface for augmented reality that only uses hand gestures. No point and click, no gaze and pinch, no hardware hand controllers.
All Zolo commands originate directly from the user’s hands, as compared to existing AR interfaces where menus and virtual controls appear in the field of vision.
Because there are no floating windows, the user has a clear, unobstructed view of everything in the room at all times.
We use a sorcery interface metaphor—conjure and cast. The user conjures a sparkling virtual object with their hands and then casts the object out into the space in front of them. With easy gesture combos, things move, light up, and dance in the virtual space. It feels like magic.
It's a comprehensive control language for professional applications.
It's a new instrument for the performing arts.
If Zolo is set up to control secondary devices such as LED lights, things happen in the physical space as well. This is the user casting spells on the physical world.
This interface is unique, unlike any existing AR interface or command system. It’s a new paradigm for how a user interacts with the virtual and real world. It’s comprehensive and versatile to the point that we don’t think of it as an app but instead see it as a platform for a new family of exciting AR applications
Our mission is to imagine what tech might look like if it had evolved as part of us, not something separate that exists within boxy devices and screens that are only accessible through keyboards and mouse pads.
(Sound On to see Margo perform an unedited 90 seconds to LCD Sound System)
Zolo flips the script on interface controls. The familiar array of virtual controls is gone. No virtual desktop, floating windows, icons, widgets, simulated knobs or buttons. Instead, the user generates all commands from natural hand gestures while enjoying a clear, unobstructed view of the physical space.
The physical space—“the room”—can be a small studio, a theater, a dance club, a movie set, an outdoor festival stage.
Zolo exploits the sensitivity of the headset’s front-facing cameras to create a comprehensive set of discrete commands from hand and finger combinations alone. Commands can be strung together with fluid, continuous motions to execute extended command sequences without interrupting the flow.
Notice in the video below how Margo casts colors by opening her hands to the lights, then pulls her fists in for the CLEAR command, all in one flowing motion. She’s controlling intensity, hue, and saturation with subtle adjustments of the angles and positioning of her hands.
And notice, while working all these commands, she’s dancing.
Augmented reality, as most people know it, is about overlays of fanciful holograms, virtual screens, and digital content floating in the field of view. The physical space, the room, is mere background. Zolo does the opposite. Zolo prioritizes the physical space. The only virtual objects in view are holograms serving to guide the execution of commands.
Zolo gives holograms a new role. They're more like dance partners. They’re beautiful glowing particles that change color and pulse and swirl around your hands as you select parameters. Then they shoot out your fingers and hit lights across the room to make them burst with new color.
ZOLO LIGHT
This video introduces Zolo Light for controlling professional LED lights.