As computers advance, so does the technology we use to control them. In the future, we may all be using touchless displays, atlas gloves, or even hand-gesture controlled 3D GUIs.
Hand-Gesture Controlled 3D GUI
Developed by Philips Applied Technologies, this hand-gesture controlled 3D GUI was created “for a home ambient multimedia platform with the demonstration purpose.” It consists of the “Looking Glass 3D API from Sun Microsystems and HandVu developed by Mathias Kölsch,Matthew Turk, Tobias Höllerer, and Stephen DiVerdi.”
PodTech Turns Any Monitor Into a Touchless Display
With just a normal webcam and special “Podtech” software, you can turn any monitor into a gesture reading, touchless display.
Using topological depth technology, it figures out what’s the static background, and differentiates it between the changing foreground. By pinching areas within the camera’s view you section off ovals which you can use to rotate and move around the display, and the researcher said more gestures are being worked on
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Atlas Gloves – Google Earth Interface
Atlas Gloves is basically a DIY hand-gesture interface for Google Earth. The system consists of “a pair of illuminating gloves that can be used to track intuitive hand gestures like grabbing, pulling, reaching and rotating.” Download the software here.
A small camera attached to a computer translates each LED-enabled gesture into a set of possible actions: pan, zoom, rotate and tilt. The video tracking functionality is written within the Processing programming framework
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Librovision – Virtual Book
Librovision is an interactive installation where users “can leaf through a virtual book, enlarge details or shift them about on the display surface by using simple hand motions and without physically touching the computer or the monitor screen.”
There are also certain gestures that launch videos and hyperlinks on the book’s interactive pages. The linkage between the reader and the virtual book is produced by a video camera that registers the user’s movements, interprets them in real time and feeds that information on to the control unit
Mitsubishi’s Multi-Touch Panel
Developed by Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (MERL), this interactive multi-input panel allows users to control such games as Warcraft III with “an array of antennas embedded in the touch surface”. Basically, a receiver connected to each user’s chair, gets signals from antennas near the touch point. The displays are available in 32-inch and 42-inch sizes.
From the article: “This unique touch technology supports multiple touches by a single user (e.g., two handed touch gestures) and distinguishes between simultaneous inputs from multiple users.”
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