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Data Glove That Turns Gestures Into Commands
ravidew writes: "Three students at Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, University of California, have built a motion-sensing glove that can transmit hand gestures to a PC. Within 3 years they hope to build sensors that are no bigger than 1mm and can be glued to each fingernail. Now you can really tell Windows what you think ..." While you're at the Sensor and Actuator Center, check out Kris Pister's smart dust.
where the point was made that you might not want your pc to know where you hands are at all time... Dave, about last night...
Shift happens. Fire it up.
Am I the only one who remembers where this will go? Check Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and remember -- in the future, you'll have to sit reeeeeaaaaally still to keep your PC from reformatting itself.
They that would sacrifice their
Of course, the gesture command for dismissing annoying pop-up ads should be obvious, depending upon whether you are using LOCALE=en_US or LOCALE=en_UK.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Development info and software available
Adapted uses of the Power Glove to VR world navigation
History of the Power Glove
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
It was called a Nintendo Power-Glove.
I've also seen schematics & drivers so that you can connect your power glove to a serial port & use it as a mouse replacement.
There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie -Noel Godin
The blue screen of death,
My middle finger extends:
Control-Alt-Delete
I don't know if anyone else remembers the powerglove, one of the silliest things nintendo ever released. The original nintendo system had the ability to accept remarkably versatile input, from a whole range of weapons (actually crappy cameras) to the tactile sensative power glove, power pad, and even a device that sensed hand position in midair with infrared(it folded open like a laptop and sensed the airspace above it.) I actually had the powerglove, and you know what? It was rather useless. No way making gestures is simpler than well placed keys. Anyone here who codes should understand that more mouse movement=less efficiency. I'd say that for now, we have to play on the computers' terms, and use a simple system relying on muscle memory that contains no ambiguity. Maybe eventually the computers can learn to understand subvocalized commands (like in the ender Quintet by Orsen Scott Card) or even mental ones, but until then, I'm afraid that the simpler the system, the better it will work. Mike Tyson's Punch Out really sucked when you actually had to punch with the glove!
My Karma is so good, I'm the Dalai Lama...or something.
Think about it. You have these sensors in each of your fingertips and any flat surface becomes an instant full-size keyboard.
It also one-ups the mouse-keyboard combination, no more mouse/touchpad. Just lift your forefinger off the virtual keyboard and move the mouse pointer by pointing at the screen. Your fingers never have to leave the home-row.
For those that can't touch-type, unroll a cheat-sheet and type on it.
This will be a GREAT technology once it matures.
I did the same thing at UIUC back in '97...
I used dual 3-axis accelerometers for the hand motion, and discrete switches to determine
finger joint position. The wires were sewn into the glove directly.
The result was very accurate hand movement, with the trade off of less complex finger movements.
Needless to say, I like the idea. It is a _very_ natural interface for a lot of applications. The glove is a little unwieldy, but for some reason beyond comprehension, everyone who does this seems to build theirs around the heaviest winter glove they can find... What someone needs to do is to build this using discreet sealed components, on the outside of thin, air-holed neoprene (similar to a bicyclist's glove.)
Also, the software is the key to whether this really works out. You need a virtual keyboard app (similar to what pen laptops use), plus a gesture pad (a la grafitti or CAD gestures), plus a standard mouse driver. (I never got around to polshing my software beyond anywhere other than manipulating a Rubik's-style 3D Cube. No, you couldn't acutally solve it.)
If:
The crotch-scratching motion is detected on a regular basis, you might get more pop-up ads for Gold Bond Medicated Powder.
Likewise, another common motion among those who sit all day might put some Preparation H commercials in your future.
Your typical 13-year-old might get more porn adverts, 'tis true...
The common nose-picking gestures might queue some Kleenex adverts up for your viewing.
Yes indeed, we should all sign up for this technology as there is no doubt that it will improve our lives beyond measure.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Yes, I know it wasn't the best movie ever made, but it had the goofiest dataglove gestures I've even seen or imagined. Gave new meaning to pointlessness. (Much like this post).
I'm the stranger...posting to
That reminds me of the one about voice recognition. A sales rep is in the middle of doing a presentation for such a system when somebody in the audience stands up and shouts "FORMAT SEE COLON" and then another guy stands up and yells "YES RETURN".
And yes, the moderators are humor impaired.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Just assign different "hand positions" to all the meta-keys the editor uses. i.e.:
palms-down = normal
palms-45-degrees = ctrl
palms-sideways = alt
palms-up (yikes) = meta (or whatever)
etc.
and "type" normally.
And for vi, just turn your wrists sideways a bit to enter "edit mode."
Never mind, this is a stupid idea.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao
English has so much fluff that is unnescessary when communicating with a machine - "Hello Computer, please open my email client and show me new emails for today" might be fun the first time, but doing it every day would rapidly grow tiresome.
I agree. English as a language is too ambiguous for computer use. And the way Americans (like myself) speak it makes it even worse as American English is fraught with homonyms.
I know it will never be tried, but classical Latin would be far better for computer input, as it is the least ambiguous language I am aware of.
Back on the subject of gesture input though, I think the Chinese will be able to put this technology to practical use sooner than anyone else. I count at least half a dozen fully-mature products from Hong Kong and Taiwan (I use Power Pen) that use a wacom pad to enter Chinese and English (and Japanese) language text into Windows PC's. With Power Pen, you can use the stylus as the only interface to the PC.
The neat thing about Chinese is, if you draw the characters with the proper stroke order, you can enter entire sentences on the fly without lifting your pen.
So if the glove mentioned could be rigged to run Power Pen, or something like it, so one could just write characters on the desk with their fingers, a Chinese person could use it as the only interface to their PC pretty much immediately.
"Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao