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Pioneer's latest Raku Navi GPS units take commands from hand gestures
An AR heads-up display wasn't the only navigation hardware Pioneer showed off at CEATEC 2012. The firm also took the opportunity to tear the wraps off a new line of gesture-controlled Raku Navi GPS units. With the infrared-powered Air Gesture feature, drivers can wave their hand in front of a device to pull up a menu with commands such as setting their home or a personal haunt as a destination or skipping to the next tune on a playlist. Once a hand is retracted, the menu will be replaced with the usual map interface. Though the solution isn't completely hands-free, horizontal hand waves can be assigned one of ten different functions. Japanese store shelves will be lined with two dashboard-embeddable units by mid-October, while four console-independent models will join them in early November. As of now, there's no word if the hardware will make the pilgrimage stateside.
Kinect hack lets you manage your bank account with gestures, will occupy your living room (video)
You know all those convoluted gestures and hate-infused fist pumps you make every time you look at your bank account? Well, you can now put them to good use, thanks to a new Kinect hack from Lithuania-based Etronika. The company's software, which made its debut at last week's CTIA E&A event, effectively brings motion-controlled banking directly to your living room. All you have to do is stand in front of your display, clap your hands to choose an icon, or wave your hand back and forth to navigate across the app's carousel menu. This means you can pay your bills, check your balance and return to fetal position without even touching a sharp object. "A lot of banking software apps are filled with boring crap," Etronika CEO Kestutis Gardziulis explained with refreshing candor. "With our software, you could be on the couch at home, having a beer, all while dealing with your bank account and kicking back." Beer, banking and body language -- sounds scandalous! Head past the break to watch a demo video, starring Pam Beesly's doppelgänger.
Movea MoveTV platform delivers motion control options to TV and set-top makers
In case you've been living under a rock: motion controls are all the rage these days. And it's not just console makers who want in on the action. ASUS, Philips and Hillcrest Labs have all launched their own takes on the tech. Movea is a company that's well versed in the field, and now plans to start offering its wares direct to TV and set-top box manufacturers. The MoveTV platform offers not only remote control tech to OEMs, but opens up the company's tools to developers for building games and apps. Movea even announced its first partners: C&M Media, a major cable provider in Korea, and Remote Solution. Remote Solution will be licensing Movea's SmartMotion and integrating MoveTV into the set-tops provided to C&M. Soon enough using gestures to change channels and playing arm-flailing renditions of Angry Birds on your cable box could be the norm. Check out the video, PR and one more pic after the break.
Kinect Graffiti creates neon tags with the wave of a hand (video)
Are you tired of Kinect hacks yet? We didn't think so -- good thing too 'cause we're not done bringing 'em to you. The latest one to hit our tips box comes from designer Jean-Christophe Naour (Innoiz Interactive), a 3D light-painting program he calls Kinect Graffiti. While calling the results "graffiti" might be a little misleading (Naour isn't exactly bombing virtual walls) it does whip up some nice streaky neon images that can capture the act of tagging, if not the final product. We won't waste any more of your time with our rambling -- a picture is worth a thousand words, and the video after the break is composed of over 4,000 of those. Don't miss the flood of photos at the more coverage link either.
Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots goes motion-controlled for TI design challenge
Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots have already seen some new life in an augmented reality demo, and they've now gotten yet another taste of the future -- Zachery Shivers and Anne Flinchbaugh have created a motion-controlled version of the game as part of Texas Instruments' Co-op Design Challenge. As you can probably imagine, that requires plenty of servos and circuit boards underneath the ring, but the key ingredient is TI's accelerometer-equipped Chronos watch, which lets you translate your actual punches into rock 'em sock 'em punches. Check it out in action in the video after the break, and hit up the source link below for the complete details on building your own.
Minority Report UI designer demos his tech at TED (video)
In February 2010, the man who built the technology of Minority Report twice -- once for the movie, and once in real life -- spoke at TED about the future of user interface design. Yesterday, TED posted John Underkoffler's entire fifteen-minute video presentation -- a copy of which you'll find right after the break. Get a curated glimpse into his company's tech in the following demo, and hear from the man himself when the gloves might come off. And if that doesn't satisfy your appetite, read an in-depth interview with Underkoffler at our more coverage link.
Students program Human Tetris into 8-bit microcontroller, give away schematics for free (video)
Sure, Project Natal is the hotness and a little bird tells us PlayStation Move is pretty bodacious, but you don't have to buy a fancy game console to sooth your motion-tracking blues. When students at Cornell University wanted to play Human Tetris (and ace a final project to boot), they taught a 20Mhz, 8-bit microcontroller how to follow their moves. Combined with an NTSC camera, the resulting system can display a 39 x 60 pixel space at 24 frames per second, apparently enough to slot your body into some grooves -- and as you'll see in videos after the break, it plays a mean game of Breakout, too. Full codebase and plans to build your own at the source link. Eat your heart out, geeks.
Student moves quadriplegics with Wiimote wheelchair control (video)
There were certainly a couple whiz kids at Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair this year, but high school senior John Hinckel's a regular MacGyver: he built a wheelchair remote control out of a couple sheets of transparent plastic, four sliding furniture rails and some string. A Nintendo Wiimote goes in your hat and tells the whole system what to do -- simply tilt your head in any direction, and accelerometer readings are sent over Bluetooth. The receiving laptop activates microcontrollers, directing servo motors to pull the strings, and acrylic gates push the joystick accordingly to steer your vehicle. We tried on the headset for ourselves and came away fairly impressed -- it's no mind control, but for $534 in parts, it just might do. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who thought so, as patents are pending, and a manufacturer of wheelchair control systems has already expressed interest in commercializing the idea. See the young inventor show it off after the break.
Cellbots get Nexus One upgrade, ad-hoc motion control (video)
Sprint and Verizon may have shunned the Nexus One, but that doesn't mean the handsets can't be put to good use: these Android-controlled, Arduino-powered Cellbots now feature the one true Googlephone as the CPU. At Intel's 2010 International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, we got our hot little hands on the DIY truckbots for the first time, and found to our surprise they'd been imbued with accelerometer-based motion control. Grabbing a Nexus One off a nearby table, we simply tilted the handset forward, back, left and right to make the Cellbot wheel about accordingly, bumping playfully into neighbors and streaming live video the whole time. We were told the first handset wirelessly relayed instructions to the second using Google Chat, after which point a Python script determined the bot's compass facing and activated Arduino-rigged motors via Bluetooth, but the real takeaway here is that robots never fail to amuse. Watch our phone-skewing, bot-driving antics in a video after the break, and see what we mean.
