Forget about the mouse, use your hands with the ZCam from 3DV

The ZCam is combination of hardware and software from 3DV Systems. It'll allow you to control the windows on your desktop, simply by moving your fingers (like a poor guy's Minority Report). At the CES they are showing a working prototype (Windows only), which uses USB 2.0 and up to 60fps, and with its 3D recognition technology, the user can bring elements back and forth, and more importantly, play videogames. It is expected to be on the market by the end of the year, for a "competitive price".

[Vía Engadget ES]

[andrea @ Jan 8th 2008 6:28AM]

Sounds amazing.

however, a video would help to get a better idea how it works.

[schweeet @ Jan 8th 2008 6:37AM]

A video showing this in action has been released before. Seems to be pretty sweet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hDKaMvAFzA&NR=1

[skulldriveshaft @ Jan 9th 2008 3:47AM]

johnny lee is fuckin pissed right now!

that dude in the 2nd to last and 3rd to last photos looks like he's performing a fight scene from every martial arts movie ever made :]

[Kurian @ Jan 8th 2008 6:40AM]

Somehow the "upto 60fps" implies that it will hog CPU and render your computer unusable for anything other than moving around windows.

[webon @ Jan 8th 2008 6:52AM]

wow that dude with the wiimote hack was a couple of month earlier from this, he must be proud of himself

[JDizzle @ Jan 8th 2008 7:19AM]

Sweet... eyetoy...

[locke6854 @ Jan 8th 2008 8:06AM]

the main photo was very creepy

[Cammo @ Jan 8th 2008 8:23AM]

Hey, I am in!

[Xee @ Jan 8th 2008 9:05AM]

I dunno, when I watched Minority Report all I could think of was, "Man, if I had to work at one of those computers for 8 hours a day my arms would get tired." I'll keep my mouse, thank you very much.

[Killer1 @ Jan 8th 2008 10:28AM]

As funny as it looks in the near future, perhaps by 2050 we will not be using the mouse anymore. We will be using our fingers with touchscreen LCD displays.

[CosterMonger @ Jan 8th 2008 11:04AM]

I would hate to have to remember all those hand gestures
this solves the problem of finger prints on touch screens

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Jan 8th 2008 11:59AM]

PS EYE or PS2 Eye toy does this for games and has for years. why does everyone think this is "New Tech" this is so 1990's. Heck I play games today that are more motion sensitive than this stuff. maybe Sony should check some patents and get into the suing game again.

[Ignacio @ Jan 8th 2008 9:45PM]

No it doesn't, that's just regular video processing, this is a special camera that captures depth information. EyeToy is just a regular cam+video procession software. This is specialized hardware+software currently at a very early state - huge of potential if done though.

[Carl M @ Jan 8th 2008 2:44PM]

This camera senses depth (distance away from camera) in addition to color.
That's what makes it special.
It's much easier to recognize things pointing at the camera that way.

[Ignacio @ Jan 8th 2008 9:47PM]

Spell checking didn't help my post... "processing", no "procession" ;-)

And just "huge potential", not "huge of".
I need some sleep :-/

[Elisha @ Jan 13th 2008 6:35AM]

Wall Street Journal has a quality reads but unfortunately they require payments. :( I hope they will reconsider to have the subscription for free since they are many competitors.