Hands-On With Microsoft's Touchless SDK

snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister takes Microsoft's recently released Touchless SDK for a test spin, controlling his Asus Eee PC 901 with a Roma tomato. The Touchless SDK is a set of .Net components that can be used to simulate the gestural interfaces of devices like the iPhone in thin air — using an ordinary USB Webcam. Although McAllister was able to draw, scroll, and play a rudimentary game with his tomato, the SDK still has some kinks to work out. 'For starters, its marker-location algorithm is very much keyed to color,' he writes. 'That's probably an efficient way to identify contrasting shapes, but color response varies by camera and is heavily influenced by ambient light conditions.' Moreover, the detection routine soaked up 64 percent of McAllister's 1.6GHz Atom CPU, with the video from the Webcam soon developing a few seconds' lag that made controlling onscreen cursors challenging. Project developer Mike Wasserman offers a video demo of the technology."

Comments

Typical Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a piece of crap to me.

It's Open Source

[larry bagina]

if you consider MS-PL Open Source.

Code efficiency

[QuietLagoon]

the detection routine soaked up 64 percent of McAllister's 1.6GHz Atom CPU
.

You really don't expect efficient code from Microsoft, do you?

Re:Code efficiency

[QuietLagoon]

Hint: the answer is 'yes'.
.

Hint: the answer is really 'Vista', and efficient it ain't.

what does barack obama have to say about this?

[Anonymous Coward]

he's your new fucking god.

if he doesn't deliver all the goods the minute he gets into office there are going to be riots and democrats will be pulled out onto the streets and beaten with ax handles. i can see it happening. you faggot democrats have no power over anything and your boy cant do shit about whats going on today. you're all going to look like a bunch of ineffective shits just like you do in the house and senate today. i'm laughing at you fucks now because i know what the future already holds.

Re:what does barack obama have to say about this?

[BronsCon]

And when that future comes, we Democrats will piss on the Republicans who caused it.

Please mod me and parent both as troll.

Finally, good press for Microsoft.

[Anonymous Coward]

This shows that Microsoft is, in fact, still a major innovator in new intellectual properties. Despite all the ridiculous hits against Vista (don't hate it until you've tried it for more than 20 minutes), we all have to remember that most of the technologies we use today, from the Mouse to the Windows UI to the spreadsheet and database and even USB are all enhanced by Microsoft's commitment to new technologies.

Yes, I am a PC, and so are most other people.

PS - I do not work for Microsoft in any way, nor do I have any investments with them.