gesturecontrol
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Fujitsu's Air Command Plus guides PowerPoint, not B-52s (video)
Multitouch is great and all, but what if you can't reach the screen? What if you could touch without touching? That's the idea behind Fujitsu's Air Command Plus, a device that promises a Minority Report-like experience but, after watching the video below, it sure seems like pretty standard gesture control. You can browse through pictures by flicking left or right, adjust a volume dial by rotating, and navigate PowerPoint slides as if you were a master of the black arts. But there's nothing metaphysical about it, and it's destined to get a lot more real in March when Fujitsu is actually pledging to ship the thing. Eat your heart out, Tom Cruise. [Thanks, Hanco]
Project Natal makes a Smallville cameo, does not guarantee ability to fly*
We didn't get any more details about Microsoft's Project Natal add-on for Xbox 360 from the X10 event, but tonight Smallville viewers got to watch someone else whipping their arms and legs around trying to catch imaginary balls flying out of their TV screen. Short of some actual time gesticulating wildly in front of that motion sensing cam this is the closest thing we've got to actually using it, but as the clip (embedded after the break) shows, girls are likely to be more impressed by someone that can fly. %Gallery-85394%
Gesture Cube, the magical, intuitive, theoretical 3D interface (video)
You know how it is -- another day, another "magical" and "intuitive" input device -- not unlike Immersion's Cubtile, which we first saw about a year ago. This time around the culprit is Gesture Cube, the heathen spawn of Ident's "GestIC" electric field sensing technology (for 3D spatial movement tracking) and a couple German design studios. GestIC detects movements and distances in 3D space, enabling touch free gesture control. If this sounds good to you, wait until you see the YouTube demonstration, complete with all sorts of "magical" and "intuitive" interface ideas! It will really make you with you were a designer living in Germany, starring in YouTube videos for "magical" and "intuitive" design firms. We don't know how much of a hurry we are to see this implemented in our fave hardware, but who knows? Maybe we'll come around eventually -- after all, Grippity did wonders for our words-per-minute. Video after the break. %Gallery-84686%
LG Magic Motion gesture control HDTV remote hands-on
Packed in with LG's new top of the line LCD, the 3D capable, LED backlit LE9500 is a new RF remote that users wave, Wii-style, to operate the onscreen menus. There's also a standard IR remote for universal remote compatibility and the very necessary lazy bastards who don't want to lift their arms to change the channel compatibility. Check out a quick demo from the CES show floor after the break. %Gallery-82618%
GestureTek brings Eyemo gesture control to Android, Momo tracking engine for Windows Mobile
GestureTek was showing off some of its gesture-based options for controlling your TV at last year's CES, and it's now back again with a few more slightly interesting pieces of software. That includes a version of its Eyemo software for Android, which is already available for range of other platforms, and lets developers take advantage of a phone's camera to add gesture control options to various applications -- although that only involves gesturing with the device itself, not your hands. The company's recently announced Momo software for Windows Mobile takes things one step further than that, however, and will indeed apparently let you control a game or other application with hand or body gestures -- although that'll likely work best on a device with a front-facing camera.
Intel crams 48 cores onto stamp-sized processor, wants to do what Cell did
Just when we thought Intel's yet-to-release six-core Core i9 would be the future, the silicon giant drops the bomb yet again with more multi-core madness -- the experimental 48-core Single-chip Cloud Computer (SCC), a.k.a. Rock Creek. While it looks like Intel still has a long way from their 80-core target in 2011, this bad boy packs an impressive 1.3 billion transistors on a 45nm fabrication, but sucks up just 125 watts which is a far cry from Core i9's 130 watts. Intel's stated that their main goal is to use SCC's parallel computation -- a field where high clock speed isn't necessary -- to enhance gesture control. Sounds familiar? Yes, it was Toshiba's SpursEngine, but there's no harm in having a new contender for the challenge. You go, girl!
Canesta gesture controlled TV frees us from the tyranny of the remote
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.
Filco's SmartTrack Neo multi-touch trackpad gives PCs the 2-fingered salute
It sure took awhile but you're looking at one of, if not the first external USB trackpads with multi-touch gesture support. The $50 (¥4,980) SmartTrack Neo model FTP500UB rocks USB 1.1 and XP / Vista drivers to bring your legacy laptop up to fighting specs with fancy modern rigs. A two-handed mouse the size of a brick -- really, how can you resist?[Via Akihabara News]
Gesture controls the next big thing in TV, says guy selling gesture control tech
Invoking examples like the iPhone, Wii and Minority Report, Canesta CEO Jim Spare is highly optimistic about the future of 3D gesture control, especially when it comes to new TVs. The company's chips powered Hitachi's gesture controlled CES demo, and plans more demos at the TV of the Future conference this week. The hand flailing demos we've seen haven't always impressed, but so far there's certainly one person who believes in the prospects of the company's low-cost 3D sensing chips. We admit, no matter how silly it looks, the idea of no longer having a remote to lose is at least a bit intriguing.
Video: Hands flailing wildly with Toshiba Spatial Motion Interface
Given a year to work on its gesture control technology, Toshiba has upgraded from the simple implementation of 2008 to a new 3D interface that rotates and zooms photos and videos with a flick of the arm. Useful? We're not completely sold. Still ridiculous to use, or watch someone else try? Of course, video's after the break.
Hitachi "Unlimited" CES theme shows some realistic boundaries for 2009
Hitachi asked itself "what if...?" prior to CES 2009, and its best idea included a "Style-Unlimited" corner for its booth, said to feature design ideas that match the craftsmanship of its TVs with stands and frames made of Japanese lacquer and gold leaf. Immediately refocusing on "what is..." -- a questionable economy and wary buyers -- the 2009 line of UT HDTVs will expand primarily by carrying a more mainstream pricetag and now standard 1080p / 120Hz features. For those still living the dream, Hitachi's managed to narrowly beat its previous best with a 15mm thick 37-inch LED backlit display , while the 50-inch UltraThin plasma from CEDIA comes along for the ride. Also making celebrity appearances? 2010's finest Super Resolution upconverting technology plus the always hilarious Gesture Control TV demo. Excited or depressed, we can't decide.
Mgestyk Fusion: the Force is 6-degrees strong with this one
Everyone and their grandma loves the Wii. But even Nintendo's new dual-axis MotionPlus struggles in 3D space due to limitations presented by the sensor bar. Mgestyk thinks it can do better by marrying its interesting gesture processing technology to the sensor data received from devices like the Wiimote. Mgestyk Fusion replaces the sensor bar with a 3D camera and image processing to translate yaw, pitch, roll, forward/back, right/left, and up/down motions from the Wiimote connected to a PC over Bluetooth. Sure, it seemed to work reasonably well at slaying clones in the video, but we're more interested to see how it holds up to the live scrutiny of a public demo when it makes an appearance at the Montreal International Games Summit next week. Until then, you'll have to feed your awkward, down-in-the-basement, lightsabering fantasies with the clip posted after the break.
Mgestyk system promises gesture control on the cheap
As we've seen, it's not exactly all that difficult for someone with the necessary skills to whip up their own gesture-based control system, but the folks at upstart Mgestyk Technologies seem to think they've got something a bit more notable on their hands, and they're actually planning on selling it to the general public. While the complete details are a bit light at the moment, their system apparently makes use of nothing more than an "affordable 3D camera" and some custom software to capture even small hand gestures, which seems to work at least reasonably well in the video after the break -- though we doubt many gamers will be quick to ditch their Razer or SteelSeries mouse. What's more, while Mgestyk already has a waiting list going, they aren't making any promises about an actual release date just yet, or a price for that matter, with them only saying that it'll be "in the range of a high-end webcam."
Toshiba's Cambridge Research Lab shows off gesture-controlled TVs, image recognition
Toshiba is pulling an EyeToy, minus a diabolical plan to actually sell the thing and make a killing off of collectable elemental decks. The company's Cambridge-based Research Lab has some new video camera-based feature they're prototyping for possible eventual TV implementation. The real highlight is a fist-based cursor control -- just stick out your hand, make a fist, and control a cursor on-screen for navigating the TV's functions. You can also put up your palm to stop the madness, and even rotate 3D images on-screen, but it's all a little shaky for now. Another thing we saw was picture recognition: hold up a cue card to the TV with an image on it and the TV recognizes it and performs a pre-assigned function. Tosh is also working on speech recognition and some other things; not really changing the world, but some fun stuff all the same.%Gallery-30760%
Toshiba Qosmio G55 features SpursEngine, visual gesture controls
Looks like Toshiba's not too far out from a new Qosmio called the G55, which LAPTOP says is on sale next month for $1,550. Listed among the specs are an 18.4-inch (1680 x 945) display, Centrino 2 CPU, GeForce 9600M GT, 4GB of RAM, dual drives, and the "Quad Core HD processor" (probably the commercial name for the Cell-based SpursEngine), which powers many of the media functions, including its camera-based visual gesture control system. LAPTOP calls the gesture system groundbreaking, but we're clearly two sides to the same coin: the demo they gave looks cumbersome, inaccurate, and incredibly frustrating. And besides the fact that it requires "steady hands" and "can't be used by people with wrist problems," even if the gesture controls were well done, holding your arm in the air for minutes at a time is nowhere near a practical for regular use. Is it sad that we still kind of want it, though?
Samsung skips the touchscreen, patents gesture-based phone interface
Samsung's been getting pretty creative with cell cameras lately -- the Instinct lets you pan around web pages by tracking movement with the camera, for example -- but the company's latest patent application, for a gesture-based phone interface, might be a little less practical. The idea is to use the phone's camera to track your hand movements, which, from the drawings, should have you looking insane on the subway in no time. Of course, we've all been guilty of waving at and even talking to our devices when they're acting up, so maybe a little feedback wouldn't be a bad thing -- there's one gesture we'd definitely like to see programmed in there.[Via Textually.org]