Canesta gesture controlled TV frees us from the tyranny of the remote
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted June 2nd 2009 7:37AM
posted June 2nd 2009 7:37AM
See the look of euphoric bliss on this man's face? He's calm and relaxed because he is using Canesta's new gesture TV control technology. No longer does this cat have to scroll through hundreds upon hundreds of channels on a standard channel listing. Au contraire, today he's using his right hand to wave through a cover view-esque selection of stations, and boy does he make it look easy. The heart of this bad boy is a low-cost 3-D chip that uses a single CMOS sensor to output a continuous stream of depth maps that can be interpreted by as specific gestures, obstacles, faces, or individuals, depending upon the application. Although the current demo might be especially appealing to you and your couch-potato brethren, the company has big plans for this device in the realms of security, robotics, medical devices, and more. But first, it will have to tear itself away from the couch, Video after the break.
Looks veeery familiar....
Yes, the gesture control, it's been done. Though the principle might be slightly different this time.
What interests me is if I could create and assign a function to the "Vulcan salute"...
How long before some idiot says this is a ripoff of Natal?
I was surprised know one went for the quote.
"These are not the television channels you are looking for."
Gesture controls have been around a lot longer then yesterday.
Heck Microsofts own research labs have it working for windows already before they even bought the company that is doing natal.(you can download it from the research site you only need a web cam).
The UI looks an awful lot like Cooliris: http://www.cooliris.com/
http://fluidtunes.com/
@chezzo
Hey it looks like Alex wins the idiot award!!
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Alex @ Jun 2nd 2009 10:06AM
Nice ripoff from the ms Natal
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Why is every device according to engadget journalist's a 'bad boy'?
Yeah, and how would i control the TV if I lost my hand and I cannot find it even after looking under the sofa cushions?
...check in your pants.
its the anti christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahha jk how cool
Its hilarious because a remote is simpler, quicker and better.
Thank god microsoft wasn't planning anything similar for the 360 that would happen to be announced in the same week.
It would be even worse if this Microsoft device was much much cooler and more newsworthy.
Yeah, chances are they saw Natal yesterday and knocked this video and mockup up this morning...either that or they have spies inside Redmond and have been copying...
...or they already had the tech and video made well before anyone knew about Microsoft's version.
I can just imagine combining the 2.. Sitting there playin your Xbox 360 and accidentally change the channel at a critical point... heh. Can't wait :D
CMOS cameras for 3D depth have been around for a decade, and several companies have been working on them. 3DV is just the lucky one that Microsoft bought out, but there is also Gesturetek and apparently Canesta.
I'm still waiting for someone to bring out an affordable consumer version to tinker with, and I suppose Microsoft's will be it once it comes out.
Did anyone else watch this and think "Finally, a TV remove for deaf people?"
Try watching the vid muted. It's like watching "see hear" on BBC, or MTV at like 2AM when they show those hilarious signed music videos.
Obviously, when I say remove, I mean remote. I'd have loved to edit my comment... but... nevermind.
Deaf people couldn't use remote controls before? Why, does yours speak to you?
Combine the 2.. Sitting there playin your Xbox 360 and accidentally change the channel at a critical point... heh. Can't wait :D
arg. responded to the wrong comment. sorry
its good to know sexist stereotyping is alive and kicking in the world of hand gesture tv remotes, did you notice the guy switches of talk of feminism to watch some sport and the women is looking for cooking programmes and a romantic movie with Richard Gere in it...
Yes, it IS good to know.
Wouldn't be the same without it.
so from moving one thumb, I've now got to wave at the damn thing, woft my wrist around like some magician and confuse all my guests as they hunt for the tv remote. Rubbish!
Yay, they've completely solved changing the channels with hand gestures. What about the 10,000 other functions my remote serves?
Canesta? Is it also going to free us from the tyranny of yeast infections?
lol you beat me to it XD
The interface looks exactly like the one offered by Cooliris. If you haven't got this add-on installed in your FF, you may want to try it as it's a great tool for browsing images, especially when you are searching for photos/images in Google Image Search.
You can tell this is going to be pure shit.
Anyone notice the delay/hesitation in the "second video" where she was cooking? Looks like it did not recognize quite right. Seems pretty stupid honestly.
I'll be happy if you can give the TV the finger in order to skip the adverts...now that would be proper gesture support. Of course, it would require the program to either be recorded or employ time-travel (probably a marketable feature) but you get the idea.
This sucks. Why would i leave the comfort of using my thumb to control all the functions of the tv to moving a whole limb to just changing channels? But i guess it's kinda like the console contoller vs. the wiimote argument. Just another technological gimmick i guess.
This takes more effort than a remote control.
Let me know when they finally employ telepathy. It still wouldn't be as easy as a remote.
I hope that something as simple as moving my hand up and down isn't assigned an important function like cycling through the channels, else it will make spanking to pron much more difficult and frustrating.
ex: fap flip fap flip fap flip DAMN!
So, now I have to have a 10 minute work out to channel surf rather than move a single thumb. I could just type in the channel number...2 or 3 digits, or I can wave, flick my wrist several times then jam my fist into some imaginary button...yeah, much simpler!
So what happens when I move my hand to grab my drink and change the channel missing a vital play in the game I'm watching? Do I have to swaddle my child who'll obviously be running around oblivious to the new control system, changing the station without knowing about it? how do you translate single button actions to a gesture? What's the gesture for "mute"? How tedious will fast forwarding and rewinding be?
This is again a solution looking for a problem to solve. All this movement to touch and gestures. I used a touch screen all-in-one at PC-World...it suddenly dawned on me after 5 minutes that I wanted to put my arm down. My hand rests on the table when I'm holding a mouse...why would I want it suspended in the air when all that moved before was a couple of fingers and a slight wrist rotation? How is scrolling through a list easier by waving my whole arm up and down when that's a replacement for a slight movement from my index finger?
So, this is like what Tosh did with SpursEngine.
Also.. you've basically got a webcam in a TV, and probably internet connected also - can you image the opportunities for voyeurs if someone finds a way to hack these things?
Nice ripoff from the ms Natal
What happens when you hook a Wii to it and try and play a game? Does it go nuts?
So it looks like you'll have to check every channel to see what's on. No EPG makes this thing less than useless. At least they could have had something on the screen that showed what was playing on the selected channel. This way you just have to go to a channel and wait for the commercials to end to know what's on. Worse than useless. Maybe it would be cool as a secondary input if I am not near the remote, but even I'm not that lazy...
And what happens when the cat/dog/child goes running in front of the TV right as the protagonist say, "It's not the butler! The murderer is...!"
I think, contrary to the rest of the commenters, that this is a great idea. However, this is a prototype, and they've got to implement lots of features besides the channel changing gesture. If i read it correctly, the sensor is a depth-sensing device, which could for example get gestures just with a finger. I suppose that the waving/sliding hand gestures was appropiate from a cinematic point of view, imagine this teaser where the users just moved a finger, it would be even useless. Go on there, flame my comment :-P
I need this NOW! where can I get it?
The guys at http://www.mgestyk.com do a lot more with gestures.