Slashdot Mirror
Touchless Gesture User Interfaces
An anonymous reader writes "Elliptic Labs is set to debut their Touchless Gesture User Interface technology which uses ultrasound to let the user navigate through a device's commands simply with the motion of their hands. From the article: 'Elliptic plans to showcase their “Mimesign” technology at IFA in Berlin from the 3rd to 8th of September 2010. Mimesign will bring intuitive ways for people to interact with devices. The possibilities range from tablets, remote controls or in-car media controls. The interface is based on ultrasound technology and allows the user to remain in an unchanged state.'"
So, instead of people simply talking into bluetooth mics, gesturing wildly in space and acting like a schizophrenic off their meds, you're simultaneously going to have people waving their arms around like they are conducting a symphony.
Yep, cubicleville is going to get even weirder than it already is.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
In glorious future, we operate our computers as if they were theremins!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Get yer shotguns.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
To keep watching the same program you must remain absolutely still in front of the TV.
But seriously, the gesture to shut something down would require exactly one finger...
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Hmm, whatever that means. I for my part remain in an unimpressed state. While the idea is good, the obvious lag renders the handling rather clumsy. Combine that with no haptic feedback and the idea isn't so good anymore.
I feel the Gesture Wars are coming... This is a quite a bit simpler system, targeting broader market, then the one suggested by John Underkoffler, that was developed during the making of the "Minority Report" the movie. I have also noticed the demo for both systems did not tackle close-up gestures which is how the "Pad" will most likely be used. Plenty of space for more ideas, and competition.
The device in the video seems to recognize only huge waving signs at the level of the whole hand, no recognition seems to happen on the level of palms or fingers. Hard to imagine that this would be so groundbreaking... especially compared to what Sony and MS are working on (albeit with more powerful devices).
Think of the wonders the conductor of an orchestra can accomplish, or even the effects of an incompetent conductor :) without external physical feedback at all (discounting the resultant sound waves.) Perhaps this kind of sensitivity to motions will progress as slowly as true AI with respect to lag but I can see some serious changes coming down the road....
This video is like watching a cat in slow motion.
from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
My fear is that we'll see a bunch of hand-waving drivers coming down the road...
Sounds like the radio on the Heart of Gold to me.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Wow, just like Star Trek TOS!!!
Oh, I know... most of you (except hard core Trekkies, or someone like me who helps make the stuff) miss the reference. Watch "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and you will see them using gesture based computing. Sadly, the concept didnt make it beyond the second pilot (probably because it was too ahead of it's time and would not be a recognizable input method, unlike the even greater quantity of buttons used in the 2nd episode onwards to replace gesture computing).
Yet another piece of Trek technology making it into today's world. :-)
StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
The interface is based on ultrasound technology and allows the user to remain in an unchanged state.
Exactly how do you remain in an "Unchanged State" and still provide "Motion"??
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
Touchless porn. Think about it.
One "Aw, Shit!" is worth 100 "Ata boys!"
Heres a gesture for you:
[Flips middle finger]
Interface *THAT* you stupid computer!
Isn't this what Kinect is all about anyway?
Think of the wonders the conductor of an orchestra can accomplish
Well, think about the magic that an orchestra really performs! Musicians are not reacting to the gestures of the conductor, they predict them so they can stay ahead... and in sync. This prediction capability won't come to computing devices for quite some time, I'll predict...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture_recognition#.22Gorilla_arm.22 or may be it should be Zombie arm
I misread the headline as "Useless gesture interface". I'm not so certain that's wrong.
Seriously, people already have a hard enough time using computers. Humans in general simply aren't perceptive enough to realize "clockwise swirly motion" means refresh the browser page. Then there's the complications of positioning, and people who talk with their hands... ...I think I'll stick to a mouse. Thanks.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
By lying to them and buying them expensive presents?
Yeah. The guys who gravitate to management positions because they are better at handwaving than ... ...
uhm
doing actual work.
(Yeah, that's what I mean.)
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
This is the same basic tech that was used to track position on the old Nintendo Power Glove, and having used it and written drivers to interface it to a PC, it isn't accurate enough to work for anything finer grained than what's shown in the video. So if you want to control something using large, sweeping, ungainly hand gestures this is the tech you want.
.technomancer
I've been thinking for several years about how to do proximity gesture sensing with RF. The thing that's always discouraged me is the extremely high frequencies needed to get decent resolution, well into the tens of GHz. Was thinking that a video camera mounted next to the display would be the next best approach, but ultrasound could make sense too given the plethora of chipsets being made for medical imaging nowadays.
I just got an email that reads:
FAP! FAP! FAP! FAP! FAP!
I like it.designer handbags wholesale.
The gestures for this prototype require way too much effort and are too slow for the simplest tasks. One wave = one tap = one press of a key. You need to use your whole arm, not just one finger. They haven't implemented circular motion recognition for extended scrolling. Can you imagine a review of this device? "It was neat for the first minute, but my arm got tired after scrolling through the first picture album. If you need to rid yourself of some underarm flab, this device is for you. Everyone else, stay away."
from the first paragraph of chapter 12 of HHGTTG:
just a ghost in the machine.
American Sign Language
Apparently it is not high enough resolution that it would allow you to use ASL for input. It looks like cameras are still the best gesture input devices.
-- Terry
Yes. But, it could work to control the sound-generating element of a partial orchestra (orchestras that cut costs by laying off some of their musicians and play their parts with a synthesizer).
Though wouldn't a few accelerometers inside the conductor's electronic wand be a more proven method of control?
My fear is that we'll see a bunch of hand-waving drivers coming down the road...
Not a day goes by that I *don't* see that...
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
What, no mention of the "revolutionary" U-Force controller for the old 8-bit NES ?
I have fond memories of trying to play SMB3 on that thing. I did find one cool secret move though: if you smash it into a million pieces, you immediately and permanently gain +3 charisma.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
This just isn't going to catch on.
The reason touch screens can work if done properly is that it is an easy intuitive interaction which has very defined parameters (ie touching the screen and moving your finger around) which is a piece of cake to pick up, and not easy to make a lot of mistakes with. Waving your hand around in the air is practically the exact opposite of all that: difficult to understand (what else do we interact with like that?), hard to pick up anything other than very simple motions (how do i grab something?), and super easy to make mistakes (oh hi Joe! Woops i deleted my email...).
I think this will be another novelty technology that never getsnany further than prototypes.
Watching their human helplessly and impotently flail his/her arms about in the direction of this thing making this godawful ultrasonic racket their pitiful master seems unable to stop. I fear many a pricey device are going to fall victim to a sudden outbreak of misplaced canine heroics.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
I mis-read the first line to be from Epileptic Labs. I was aghast that a company could somehow associate epilepsy with some sort of gesture based interface.
Its really amazing. Apple patent seeks to lock up jailbroken iPhones really grows too fast. This will bring intuitive ways for people to interact with devices. The possibilities will range from tablets, remote controls or in-car media controls is really a wonderful news. This will mean that I can pimp slap my way through this gadgets. I.m so excited having this gadget for my self.
This prediction capability won't come to computing devices for quite some time, I'll predict...
Let me get right on that.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
when i first heard about the xbox kinect (nee natal) i thought it'd be great if it ever gets hacked to work with linux, or even windows, so we could use it in media centres and htpcs. this kind of gesture recognition is only useful for sporadic instructions though. scrolling up and down, turning the volume up etc, and only if you can do it by moving your hand, not your arms
That will be helpful for physically challenged too.
Though wouldn't a few accelerometers inside the conductor's electronic wand be a more proven method of control?
You still need prediction because the musicians physical actions need to predate the conductors wand by several tenths of seconds.
...would definitely approve. I seem to remember a section in HHGTTG where he was waving his hand at the radio to change the channel, but had to keep irritatingly still when he actually found the one he wanted.
Sure, this might be viable for operations you seldom do, like dimming the lights or turning on a monitor, but it won't be viable for any prolonged use.
Not only that, gestures appear to be quite slow.
You might think that it's not really a problem because you don't do that many and so on average you have time enough. While true, that overlooks an important issue: the system is often hung waiting for user input.
Let's take the application example from the video: photo browsing. Let's say I want to find a particular photo in some linear collection. What am I going to do? Linear search, i.e. "look at one; is it that one? yes=return, no=goto next and repeat." Let's break down what happens in my brain: visual perception ("look at one"), recognition ("is it that one?"), decision ("yes=[...], no=[...], which branch to take?"), motor planning ("I'm going to move my hand in order to 'goto next'"), motor execution ("I'm moving my hand [as above]").
Note that each step depends on the previous. You can't really do a gesture in advance and save it up, because (presumably) it would take another gesture to release your savings, and what have you saved then?
So you're really stuck doing this slow reaction to external stimuli.
That being said, if the people behind this technology show appropriate humility and says "this is a prototype / under development / subject to continuous improvement" loudly and clearly enough, I think they deserve respect---basically because I think it's valuable to contribute new ideas to any discussion, especially if they've been proven feasible, and one can always limit the application of the idea to those places where it's actually useful (and those places, in my mind, are left un(der)explored).
My p cents where p is an even prime. (But hey, I'm not doing HCI, I'm doing crypto, so don't trust the above just for my authority :D -- but I hope it gives you something new to think about)
The web page I was looking for. [waves hand]
Basically an IR motion detector, usually an IR emitter (pulsed to save power and extend life of the emitter), and an IR detector set up to watch for the IR signal reflected of the users hands.
Douglas Adams predicted the problems with this technology decades ago:
"For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Already did something like this with a P5 pointer glove and StrokeIt on Windows. It would have been a really cool system if the P5 glove's tension sensors (straps on your fingers that will register a click once a certain tension is reached. They're useful as analog axes...LOL j/k) weren't a total PITA to calibrate. But yeah your arm did get tired after a while, so it's not something you'd want to use every day.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
After watching the video I see that this system is a total joke compared to what I had set up. I could do anything that could be done with a 5-button mouse. This is a pointless system that only allows kinetic scrolling by the looks of it.
If anyone else has a P5 and wants to try this on Linux, MyGestures is the closest thing to StrokeIt on Linux - it's a total bitch to install though.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mygestures/
Here's what I could dig up on using a P5 in Linux:
http://noisybox.net/computers/p5glove/
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Gotta say i was somewhat impressed by this technology. But i think it needs to be tweaked. I think after this sort of gesturing gets more refined we may see it more. I don't like the idea of having to wave my arm at something to see the next picture. But if it were good enough to detect each finger it could potentially be a very good interface. After the revolution we have seen with touch technology, which started with clunky pens and moved on to fingers, seeing this start as a wild arm flailing makes me hope that this will evolve into a minority report type interface. Or maybe it will fall flat on it's face.
Humans in general simply aren't perceptive enough to realize "clockwise swirly motion" means refresh the browser page.
I don't remember which versions of which browser this was in, but in several of them the "back" button was an arrow that went "up" and "left", while the forward arrow was "up" and "right". The Enter key is traditionally "down" and "left". The refresh button is usually a "rotating" arrow. If you want to "play" media, hit the "play arrow". If you want to fast-forward, click the double-right arrow. If you want to move forward on a list, click the double-right arrow with a line after it, not to be confused with the "End" key which is a single-right arrow with a line after it (same for the "play previous" button and the "Home" key). The "Shift" button is usually an outline of an "Up" arrow, not to be confused with the "Page Up" button, which is a solid "up" arrow, or just the "Up" key. Obviously, none of these have anything to do with "Backspace", which also has a "left" arrow on it, but it's not just a triangle, but rather a line *and* a triangle, like the "Left" key.
Knowing this, what would you *expect* the symbol on the "Tab" key to do?
Wow. Thankfully, I live in the USA and our keyboards are labelled with actual words. I know many non-English and international-English keyboards are symbol-based, so I Googled them and...wow. Those poor Europeans; all the free healthcare and extra vacation days in the world wouldn't make up for that.
Yes, some US keyboards also have those silly arrow/line indicators on them in addition to the names, but our shift keys actually say "Shift" and our enter keys actually say "Enter."
If Apple was behind this interface, it wouldn't use any existing gesture language.
Hmmmm.....maybe it would implement Jobs hit with a stun gun...:-)