http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/ Engadget Comments for Researchers want gesture-controlled gadgets http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/
i for one am sick of typing and pressing buttons. at least do something with a jacket and an iPod.

also, gestures are silent. voice commands are not, and will annoy people in public like cellphones do.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/
THE FUTURE IS NOW, AND IT WILL LOOK FUNNY]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/
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]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/
I also think that anyone who has been reading Engadget for the past 13 months will see that I have NO problem embracing new technologies--in fact, this entire site is devoted to that very topic. It's far easier to tag someone as "reactionary" or "conservative" than to engage them in a legitimate debate about the merits of a new technology.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/
heres a link to the actual project page.

http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~jhw/audioclouds/]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/1) We have GBA games with a gyroscope.
2) We have the Onimusha sword controller for the PS2...

Who knows, maybe the revolution is gensture controlled.
With regards to mobile gaming, I think the DS has an edge in these innovative things (because of all the input mehtods) than the PSP.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/
Traditional button-style interfaces often have some kind of symbol that shows what a button does -- for example, in audio players --, whereas gesture-style interfaces require memorisation of all the gestures. If I have a button- or menu-based interface with a few commonly-used features but a lot of ones I use rarely, there's no problem, because I can search for the labelled button or the menu item I need as it comes up. Transfer that to a gesture-based interface, and now I have to pull out a gesture manual or something to get information that ought to be built into the interface. The other option is memorizing all the gestures I don't need regularly just in case I do need them some day.

The dumbest part of this, though, is the fact that it uses the whole body. A smaller gesture interface, something akin to a touchpad or stylus display like the Nintendo DS actually makes a lot of sense to me. It seems like it would be easier to use and far more context-friendly than a whole-body gesture interface. And the fact remains that a whole body gesture system would tend to make one look really, really stupid.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/ I saw Minority Report in theaters and besides almost shitting my pants (I get scared easily), I was amazed with the future glove/gesture interface the dectective used to move around through the precrime videos. I thought "Well shit! This is pretty phenomenal stuff and has the power to revolutionize many things we do."
I realize the article was not discussing a super-advanced prototype technology identical to the one contained within the duration of Minority Report. The article was commenting on an ugly duckling: young, uncordinated, and largely a burden to its caretaker. Does it contain the potential to mature into a breath-taking swan?
Peter seemed, to me, to be doing what bloggers to best; regurgitating someone else's reporting. Still, it is excellent that he posted this article starting a healthy discourse into the nature of hype and the praticality and usefulness of this mostly-still-theoretical technology.
There is wisdom in what O Buck has to say though. I am currently reading a book titled BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING by Malcolm Gladwell who writes for the WASHINGTON POST. One of the lessons from Blink is that an incredibly small "slice" of one's life can reveal very meaningful and often reliable insight into that particular person's life. Peter, in your original post you have provided people with an excellent "slice" into your philosphy (or possibly you were desperate to comment and pulled a 'devil's advocate'.)
Unlike O Buck and despite my slowly changing beliefs as a result of reading Blink, I refuse to make a snap judgement about you and label you conservative or reactionary. Especially since both of those have such strong political conotations. It simply does not matter if you were reactionary or intellectually skeptical because you certainly were not visionary. Now do not confuse visionary for hype-monger. Let me define myself so as not to leave any ambiguity as to my postion on this issue. I define hype as unfounded, unsupported, or overly exaggerated excitement often created by deliberate lies, not-so-deliberate bull shit, and blind optimism. A hype-monger being one who perpetuates these falsehoods, exagerations, and especially minimized challeges that lie ahead. While a visionary is one who actively challenges his beliefs and looks not toward we are currently achieving but what we could potentially achieve.
"Maybe we’re missing some critical part of what they’re trying to get at (the BBC article isn’t exactly heavy on the details), and we’re all for “innovation,” but c’mon dude, is pressing a button on a remote really killing you?" (Rojas)
An example of my point is the following. In the 1950's calculators did not exist at a pocket level, and it was still challenging to envision a world with small, portable, cheaply manufactured calculators capable of complex mathematical operations. A lay person did not know or care about this possible future. A visionary found it empowering and thought creatively about what new possibilities this would enable. A hype-monger boldly proclaimed the devices would certainly enable a man to land on Mars and math students would gain the new skill of simulating nuclear explosions (neither of which have yet come to pass as a result of the ubiquous, pocket calculator.) I fear, someone like you might have said "Maybe we’re missing some critical part of what the MIT boys're trying to get at (the BBC article isn’t exactly heavy on the details), and we’re all for 'innovation,' but c’mon dude, is addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division really killing you?"
"...It's about not automatically embracing something new and different simply because it's new and different." Certainly I agree with that. Yet Peter, you ignored that reality that this isn't simply new and different. This is about enhancing human-computing interfacing which holds enormous potential to change computing in general. "'The idea behind the whole thing is to look at new ways to present information,' Professor Stephen Brewster told the BBC News website." This research is not an elborate and expensive plan to develop the next gimmick like an iPodPhoto rather it is on par with the mouse or the scroll wheel or the touch-tone phone because a little interface change can go along way.
This technology is about advancing to the next song on an iPod, about as much as pocket calculators were about adding and subtracting. Sure they started off adding and subtracting, but the developers and the visionaries certainly had not intensions of ending there.
Also, when I read furtim's comment I couldn't disagree more. "Am I the only person who finds gestures to be counter-intuitive? I think the only reason geeks like them is that they steepen the learning curve for a new interface." I am sure similar disenting comments were made of the mouse and I am hoping historical context reveals that a few steps back can be many steps forward. In other words, the time lost on our current primitive interfaces could be spent towards learning new more productive ones.
Finally, please write back your responses whether they be flaming with anger or gushing with argreement. Keep me posted because I'm very excited to know this technology is being researched seriously. It holds the potential to do things not possible without it. Such as the following WIRED magazine link

http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,66722,00.html

PS. Rojas, don't close your mind now! [or the future will destroy you.] <= I don't agree with that I know plenty of closed-minded folks who have yet to be destroyed by the future (ie George Bush!)]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/04/researchers-want-gesture-controlled-gadgets/Dec 19th 2005 12:12AM