Posted by
michael
on from the up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right dept.
_iris writes: "As reported on the Dot, gesture control (apparently all the rage with the kids after the latest Opera release) is coming to KDE. You can find a _very_ early release of KGesture here." Sounds like a recipe for carpal tunnel to me.
Before you dismiss this out of 'hand' . . .
by
brickbat
·
· Score: 5
Sorry, had to get that horrible pun out of my system.
Seriously: while gesture controls may not be ready for prime time just yet, consider that the technology may prove useful for those who communicate best using only their hands. A 17-year-old from Colorado recently won the grand prize at the International Science and Engineering Fair for designing a glove that can interpret the movements of someone "speaking" in American Sign Language (ASL) and then output the communication as text.
So, the hard of hearing could control their computer with ASL commands, or dictate letters the same way the rest of us can with a voice-powered word processor, using beefed-up gesture control technology and, of course, hardware that can reliably interpret their hand movements. It's somewhat tangential to the story, but an intriguing concept nonetheless.
How to use this effectively
by
benploni
·
· Score: 5
After spending some time playing with this, I have learned a few things:
1) Don't bother with fancy gestures yet. Only simple ones, like L will work with any reliability.
2) You *must* pause before and after the gesture. This is CRUCIAL. A slight pause, gesture, pause.
3) Scale doesnt matter. Small l, big L, it doesn't matter. It would be nice if I could filter smaller motions.
4) Understand dcop. dcop will allow you to do gestures for all sorts of KDE apps. For example, you could have gesture that makes the konquror web browser "go back", or "reload". Or it could have kmail cheack your mail. Try running kcdop, a graphical dcop browser, to get an idea of what's possible.
I'm sure at least some of you have done over the phone tech-support (even a litle).
Ever have trouble getting someone to right-click and drag? Try this:
"OK, now close your current window by holding down the right and middle mouse button, while making a square, clockwise, aterting from the top left corner. Now, open a new konsole by holding down the right mouse button, and then moving right a short distance, then down, then right for a short distance, then up."
DarkWinter, part-time gesture phone support expert, fulltime psychotic.
--
Even if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, you can't be sure until you see the RealDuck
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, had to get that horrible pun out of my system.
Seriously: while gesture controls may not be ready for prime time just yet, consider that the technology may prove useful for those who communicate best using only their hands. A 17-year-old from Colorado recently won the grand prize at the International Science and Engineering Fair for designing a glove that can interpret the movements of someone "speaking" in American Sign Language (ASL) and then output the communication as text.
So, the hard of hearing could control their computer with ASL commands, or dictate letters the same way the rest of us can with a voice-powered word processor, using beefed-up gesture control technology and, of course, hardware that can reliably interpret their hand movements. It's somewhat tangential to the story, but an intriguing concept nonetheless.
After spending some time playing with this, I have learned a few things:
1) Don't bother with fancy gestures yet. Only simple ones, like L will work with any reliability.
2) You *must* pause before and after the gesture. This is CRUCIAL. A slight pause, gesture, pause.
3) Scale doesnt matter. Small l, big L, it doesn't matter. It would be nice if I could filter smaller motions.
4) Understand dcop. dcop will allow you to do gestures for all sorts of KDE apps. For example, you could have gesture that makes the konquror web browser "go back", or "reload". Or it could have kmail cheack your mail. Try running kcdop, a graphical dcop browser, to get an idea of what's possible.
KDE Rules, Good luck!
Ever have trouble getting someone to right-click and drag? Try this:
"OK, now close your current window by holding down the right and middle mouse button, while making a square, clockwise, aterting from the top left corner. Now, open a new konsole by holding down the right mouse button, and then moving right a short distance, then down, then right for a short distance, then up."
DarkWinter, part-time gesture phone support expert, fulltime psychotic.
Even if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, you can't be sure until you see the RealDuck
So could I use this to send a relpy to all the Spam I get? I've got a great gesture for them.
Americans could not be more self absorbed if they were made of equal parts water and paper towel. -Dennis Miller