Tarek El Dokor’s work gives new meaning to the concept of making something happen in the blink of an eye. The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Prescott campus) professor got a $50,000 Honda Initiation Grant to further his work on holographic instrument panels and displays. Now, the press release doesn’t specifically mention aircraft applications (though he does work at ERAU) but it does hint at the kind of potential the stuff he’s working on might have in the cockpit. “You dont need to touch any screens,” El Dokor, the director of ERAU’s Machine Vision Lab, said. “Content is projected away from the dashboard and toward the user, where the user can manipulate it in many ways.” So far, El Dokor and his team have been able to change the way video games are played and it doesn’t take too much of a leap to see the real-world applications. “For example, his lab has developed a way for people to control the movement of video game characters by moving their own body instead of a joystick or controller,” an ERAU news release says. “A camera captures the persons movements, sending messages through the computer system that tell on-screen objects or contents what to do.” The Honda grants are handed out to those working on the beginnings of technology that might be in general use in five to 10 years.
