DIY hand-based 3D input

If you've ever felt the burning desire to give your index finger a little more prominence in your day-to-day computing exercises, here's your chance. A DIY'er has combined an IR-based, homemade tracking system with a piece of software that he's coded which can translate the IR data into 3D navigation. So far, the system can track the movement of two hands using six individual points (we assume one per axis, per hand). Details are scarce on the project right now, but the prospect of manipulating onscreen images or spaces in three dimensions with a cheap and simple solution is definitely enticing. Check the video after the break to see a finger in action.

[Alex @ Dec 14th 2007 7:22AM]

This was done by students a Worcester Polytechnic Institute a few years ago...

[ThomasN @ Dec 14th 2007 8:53AM]

Camera tracking of a 3D pointer was published by Daniel DeMenthon (UMD) in 1993:
http://www.cfar.umd.edu/~daniel/
Paper: http://www.cfar.umd.edu/~daniel/daniel_papersfordownload/VideoMouse.pdf

[Bobs @ Dec 14th 2007 8:10AM]

My G15 fried 3 weeks ago. they dont make the good ones anymore

[NHAnimator @ Dec 14th 2007 8:14AM]

So now I can give bad drivers the finger from all angles?

[Dave @ Dec 14th 2007 8:26AM]

looks like a wiimote's IR reciever strapped onto his finger.. very similar to the hacks for them as well.

[Randavance @ Dec 14th 2007 4:20PM]

I've seen this hack, it was based off of something done by Johnny Lee (http://www.johnnylee.net).

He also made an amazing digital white board using the Wii motes IR sensor, a bluetooth enable laptop, a projector, and a custom made IR pen. I'm actually duplicating the hack for my school computer club.

[SJ @ Dec 14th 2007 11:47PM]

I think the IR detector only sees how large the point is, and based on that you determine z-distance. And as you can see it's not really that accurate.