"Body Talk" Could Control Gadgets

Fragglebabe writes "The BBC reports that we could soon be controlling our gadgets using small movements of the body, such as a nod of the head. In order to make this possible, 'Audio cloud' technology has been developed by researchers at the University of Glasgow. They say that 'audio clouds could make using mobile devices on the move safer and easier'. According to the article, 'the researchers have developed ways to control gadgets, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and music players, using 3D sound for output and gestures for input.'"

Comments

"Relaxation " to control stuff.

[zijus]

From (dead) medialab Europe MindGames section, the Relax to Win game.

Philip McDarby, Daragh McDonnell, Rob Burke A racing game in which each person controls a dragon that moves quicker as they relax. The race is competitive and stressful however the person most relaxed wins. Possible applications of this research are in the treatment of stress, anxiety disorder and attention deficit disorder.

AFAIR, their aim was to actually provides games for teaching humans how to control some physiological signals, in order to enable better (simpler, more natural, ... ?) Human/machine interfaces in the future.

Z.

Showing my age, but...

[DiamondGeezer]

Folks,

we've been hearing about control of gadgets, faucets and light bulbs using heat, remote control, computer control, nodding, winking, clapping, voice control and other electronic marvels for as long as I can remember (ie the mid 1970s).

Yet, we're still using light switches whose fundamental design hasn't changed since Edison. We still have doors that open or close (instead of slide to one side a la "Star Trek") manually using something we old-timers call a "door handle". We still open a faucet which is entirely mechanical in design.

Face it, these hyped-up-but-never-deployed electronic marvels are poor quality alternatives to straightforward mechanical design, and always liable to go wrong (especially during a power-outage).

We'll still be using the same stuff in fifty years - just get over it. There are more compelling uses for technology than these solutions-for-problems-that-don't-require-solution s.