Gestures

When and if we ever do get our personal robot assistants, it would be nice to think that we could "be ourselves" in front of them, doing things such as scratching our butts or checking our deodorant - because they're just robots, right? They're not going to know what we're doing. Well ... thanks to research currently being conducted at Cornell University, there's already a Microsoft Kinect system that can correctly identify people's activities, based on observation of their movements. If such technology were incorporated into a robot, it's possible that it could admonish you for chewing with your mouth open – although more likely, it might offer to help you lift a heavy object. Read More

Microsoft has announced that its controller-less accessory for the Xbox 360, dubbed Project Natal, will ship by the end of 2010. Unveiled in June 2009, Project Natal is the Redmond company’s attempt to out-Wii the Wii. Instead of a hand-held controller, wireless or otherwise, Project Natal uses a 3D sensing unit on top of your TV to read your gestures, recognize your face or other objects, and even respond to your voice. Project Natal is among the latest examples of devices that are controlled by so-called “natural user interfaces”. Read More

Tokyo Auto Salon opens tomorrow and could benefit from much of the hangover from the greatly downsized Tokyo Motor Show last October. One of the most exciting prospects of the show is the first showing of Honda’s Gathers Advance 4, a next-generation car navigation and multimedia system concept which is based around a combination of gesture control (top left image) and voice recognition. Little has been released about the system as yet, however a series of images released by Honda indicates in-car cameras trained on the driver (behind iPod –top right) and voice recognition controls on the steering wheel (bottom right). Read More

With the Wii's MotionPlus already old news, and Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's PlayStation Eye-based equivalent likely to hit this year, it's easy to wonder when motion controls will find success in the PC world. ASUS's Eee Stick tried, but merely proved that strong software support for new hardware peripherals is absolutely crucial for success - which is why we're excited to see Valve, developers of hit series such as Half-Life, Left 4 Dead and Portal, showing support for Razer and Sixense's new, as-yet-unnamed motion control hardware for the PC. Read More

The gestural interface used by Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report was based on work by MIT Media Lab’s Hiroshi Ishii, who has already commercialized similar large-scale gestural interface systems. However, such systems comprise many expensive cameras or require the user to wear tracking devices on their fingers. To develop a similar yet cost effective gestural interface system that is within reach of many more people other researchers at MIT have instead been working to develop screens with embedded optical sensors to track the movement of the user’s fingers that could quickly make touch screens seem outdated. Read More

The Apple rumor-mill’s speculation of a replacement for the Mighty Mouse has been borne out today, with Apple introducing the world’s first wireless multi-touch “Magic Mouse”. As with all Apple designs, the new mouse is a lesson in minimalist design with no buttons, scroll wheels or “nipples” on display. Instead, the entire top of the aluminum-based mouse is a seamless hard acrylic multi-touch surface that lets users navigate using the finger gestures made popular on other Apple devices, such as the iPod touch, iPhone and Macbook trackpads. Read More

Up until now, touch screen keyboards have been problematic in that the user has had to look at the screen to navigate the location of the keys. That could all be set to change with news that Microsoft has filed a most interesting patent for a touch screen keyboard that uses multi touch capabilities to incorporate the user’s own hands as a physical point of reference. Read More

In the past few years there has been an increasing effort toward creating 3D computer interfaces and televisions. Now, it’s the television’s turn to see us.....in 3D! Since its foundation in 1999, Canesta has been working on a family of low-cost, chip-based 3-D sensors that can be built into virtually anything – from TVs and PCs to cars and industrial equipment - and now the technology is filtering through to real-world applications like Kicker Studio's gesture control entertainment system. Dr. Peter Puya Abolfathi - Biomedical Engineer, co-inventor of the Rehabilitation Glove and now a member of the Gizmag Team - takes a closer look at how this technology works and what it's bringing to our living rooms. Read More

A team from Brown University has developed a robot capable of following verbal and nonverbal commands in indoor and outdoor environments. Based on iRobot's brain-trust, previously known for developing PackBot, the machine was presented at the Human-Robot Interaction conference from March 11-13. Read More