Who needs a Mouse? Just Use Hand Gestures.

October 3, 2012

Bringing Hand Gesture Control to Ultrabooks (Photo credit: IntelFreePress)

I think it was around January 2012 I heard about the Leap and of course I ordered a couple right away. They should be available around the December timeframe and I am excited to add this to my daily computing routine. As we can see human computer interaction is advancing and we are quickly reaching the HCI concepts presented in the movies Minority Report and Iron Man. We have moved from keyboard and mouse, to wireless keyboard and wireless mouse, to the smart-mouse, to a track pad, and in the very near future we won’t need a physical device other than a camera/motion sensor. The keyboard isn’t that far from disappearing as well…. I remember seeing a device that projects a keyboard on to anything and you can type on it (projection on the wall, your hand, someone’s back).

3Gear Systems, another start-up, is planning on altering the public’s HCI as well with their use of 3D cameras. Read below…I have included the link to the article, the 3Gear System video, as well as the Leap Motion video….

English: Typical skeletal hand used by gesture recognition software. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Technology Review – Finger mouse: 3Gear uses depth-sensing cameras to track finger movements.

3Gear Systems

Microsoft’s Kinect, a 3-D camera and software for gaming, has made a big impact since its launch in 2010. Eight million devices were sold in the product’s first two months on the market as people clamored to play video games with their entire bodies in lieu of handheld controllers. But while Kinect is great for full-body gaming, it isn’t useful as an interface for personal computing, in part because its algorithms can’t quickly and accurately detect hand and finger movements.

Now a San Francisco-based startup called 3Gear has developed a gesture interface that can track fast-moving fingers. Today the company will release an early version of its software to programmers. The setup requires two 3-D cameras positioned above the user to the right and left.

via Meet the Nimble-Fingered Interface of the Future – Technology Review.