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Microsoft Shows Off Its Vision For Gesture-Controlled PCs
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has demoed a prototype gesture-controlled PC using an augmented version of its Kinect motion sensing system. The rig detects 16 gestures and can be used to navigate Windows 8. Microsoft said it wants gestures to complement what is possible using mouse and keyboard, rather than replacing them, and the system favors simple gestures made just above the keyboard, rather than more elaborate Minority Report-style gestures. '[A] window is maximized by clenching a fist to "grab" it and then opening the hand while moving towards the top of the keyboard. Performing the same series of gestures in reverse minimize the window. Repeating the gesture while moving the hand to the left or right edge of the keyboard docks the window with the left or right edge of the screen. The same series of gestures while moving the hand to the top left and right corners of the keyboard will throw the window to the left or right of screen, but not dock it with the edge. Bringing hands together in the middle of the keyboard and then moving them to the keyboard's left and right edge with palms down and fingers splayed will show the desktop. Repeating the gesture restores the original view.'"
When you raise your middle finger?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Touchscreens are a big enough step down from mouse and keyboard for getting utility out of computers. Can we just skip all the steps until AI conversation/mind reading? Thanks.
Cars should have this! There is no good reason to lean forward and touch a screen to adjust the volume and skip a track. If we had gestures in cars that would be a real breakthrough.
So no I have to lift my hands from the keyboard to control stuff?
Just how many of the normal motions I make with my hands will trigger random window events?
Sorry guys, but this sounds like a terrible idea, and not one I'd be interested in.
So does having a camera/motion tracker in front of me all day long, especially since Microsoft has already tipped their hand at being able to gather all sorts of extra data with it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
After mainly using Windows 8 at home "...Microsoft said it wants gestures to complement what is possible using mouse and keyboard, rather than replacing them..." seems like a complete 180. Using a keyboard in Windows 8 feels like im using some new beta device with sketchy drivers.
...Microsoft said it wants gestures to complement what is possible using mouse and keyboard, rather than replacing them...
Didn't Microsoft say a similar thing about the new interface in Windows 8 and the Start Menu? Yet Microsoft tried burying the Start Menu, only to be chastised by its customers for doing Yet Another Stupid Thing.
Microsoft is now attempting to drive the norm in PC interaction to something requiring their hardware and the use of patents they hold.
people would be singing its praises and talking about how totally amazing it is, but since it's MS... well, we can't do that now, can we :)
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates
It sounds to me like bringing up the desktop requires a variation on a praying gesture. :)
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Do you know why touch is ultimately bad for desktops? Because it isn't very precise. And now they want to add a system that is even less precise.
This looks cool, but once the wow factor wears off, will anyone want to use this interface for any length of time?
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
... I'd like to smugly suggest Microsoft look into a tabbed window manager. It'll help you avoid waving your arms around like an idiot when you just want to do something simple with your computer.
I might be surprised, but I don't expect to use gestures much when I'm using the keyboard and mouse. I don't want more—I want better replacements. I have never used the idiotic "Windows" key, nor do I ever click the mouse's scroll wheel. I use the function keys more than my colleagues, and that's not much, because the things I use them for I learned before Windows and mice. Though I like the idea of a Dvorak keyboard, I'm not going to bother with it because it only offers an incremental improvement. So... save the gestures for the car and the holodeck. That way it'll be obvious to the cops when people are texting while driving. My suggestion for desk work? It would have been chorded keyboards or gloves, but now I think we're going to get brain-direct control pretty soon. So I'll wait for it. But given the thoughts people have, they'll want to check their emails very carefully before sending!
I'm glad they qualified it with augment, not replace, keyboard and mouse. Big, arm-waving gestures are cute for a sci-fi movie or a novelty, but stupid for reality. When they do finger gestures as my hands rest at the keyboard and mouse, let me know.
Even "mouse gestures" where you waggle the cursor in spirals and vague rectangles went nowhere.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"Benvenuto a Micarosofta Supporta. Owa can I a helpa you?"
"All a my filesa are disparata! Whassa go on? Anche I sold my casa on eBai for a packa di cigarettas. And I donta even smoka!"
"Awhat a you toucha?"
"Nieddu, no toucheda niente. I was a justa askinga mi colleghi if they wanta coffee..."
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Just how in the world do they expect us to automate our tests, now? Will we have to program little hand-waving robots to make gestures? And we'll, of course, need different-sized hands and fingers, too.
Just imagine a room full of computers with hand waving robots whirring around running unit, functional, and system tests of a new app.
Then imagine filing a bug report with explicit steps to reproduce.
Oh, this will be fun.
I want a keyboard, a mouse and Windows 7. Anything GUI wise that belongs on a phone/tablet or involves me talking out loud or waving at my PC, well basically, sod off.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
So does it restart, shut down or turn on the webcam and start up chat roulette? I can think of a few gestures done regularly in front of a PC.
I believe that is the gesture for "ask nVidia for an open API."
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I really don't get. Why is it so hugely popular on /. to jump on Apple so hard? People go on and on and how expensive it is jokes and so on, but I just don't get it. OS X, IMO has been very stable since 10.3. and Mavericks is very stable, regardless whether you like the new UI or not. Heck, OS X has been amazingly secure when you consider the amount of users /hackers concentrating their efforts on the platform.
I would say, at the present time, Apple is much more inventive than Microsoft. And yet Microsoft gets the most market share each year. For what? For fucks sake, the Windows Mobile is EXACTLY the same as Windows CE! Oh wait...it's bigger. And they have a tablet version of the same fucking thing! Surely that is innovative, right?
Also, people bitch like hell over how much iOS 7 sucks because of the new UI, except these are the very same asshats who claim Apple suxs and never innovates. If you hate Apple so much, why are you so upset when they change the product?.
People can say and think what they want of course, but at this point, I would much rather get behind Apple than those D-bags in Redmond or trust google to look after my privacy.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
The film Minority Report is going to single-handedly do more damage to UI design than even the falling cost of touch-screen technology.
...Michael J. Fox sits down in front of one!!!
All the hate is because I have enough RSI just using a keyboard and mouse for 8 hours a day. Get comfy in your chair, now hold your hands out 6" above your keyboard for 60 seconds. Next try 5 minutes. How uncomfortable will you be after physically gesturing with your hands for 8 hours? How about after a week of 8 hour days doing that? 6 months or a year?
Windows isn't a thing I use when I'm bored at home and want to surf the web for a bit. As a professional engineer working at a company where its use is mandated, it is my toolbox. I use Win7 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, and it works well enough the way it is, so its natural I feel a bit protective of it.
Playing devil's advocate and sensationalizing a bit here, but hopefully I've explained at least some of the hate for this particular piece of tech.
Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
Hola que tal un interesante nota algunas de veces las actualización de la tecnología trae beneficios en otras no saludos. http://www.oscarherrera.info/blog/como-monitorear-tus-pines-en-pinterest/#more-709
Oscar Herrera | Tu Mentor de Negocios Online
We've reached that awkward stage in technology, where the things you routinely disable on a machine are approaching parity with the things you enable. Gestures are one of the first things I disabled on my laptop. Finger print scanner? Don't use, which is essentially disable. Most scripts on web pages? There are plug-ins to disable them. Windows 8 UI? Third party apps were made to roll it back. And so on and so forth. It's all core wars now.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
... now hold your hands out 6" above your keyboard for 60 seconds. Next try 5 minutes. How uncomfortable will you be after physically gesturing with your hands for 8 hours? How about after a week of 8 hour days doing that? 6 months or a year?
What you're describing is quite similar to what an orchestra conductor does. And, in between periods of conducting, they often curse at the orchestra in anger because it didn't do what was intended. Maybe we'll see Windows 9 marketed with a "Conductor" UI?
It'll never make it to production and all the nerds will mourn what could have been... (Microsoft Surface (the original), the folding book thing, the microsoft house of the future, etc etc)
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
Except you typical American Freeway does not have a speed limit of 70 mph, and four tons is heavier than every single non-commercial vehicle in the world.
"Typical" is a loaded word, as so much depends on one's local geographic context. 70 mph is common in Washington state outside of urban areas, for instance.
Four tons might sound like hyperbole; however, some larger SUVs do come close, or even exceed that mark. For example, the Hummer H2 has a curb weight of 6,400-6,600 pounds, depending on engine configuration -- essentially 3.25 tons US. The gross vehicular weight tips the scales at 8,600 pounds, over 4.25 tons. And it sounds like some Hummer models (probably the almost-milspec H1) could be as heavy as 11,000 pounds, or 5.5 tons.
I see a few Hummers daily on my regular commuting route. The posted speed limit never goes above 60, but it's common when traffic is light for folks to be barreling along at 70+ mph.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I really REALLY don't want to take my hands off the keyboard to do some stupid-ass gesture. It's a waste of time and breaks my flow of thought. I begrudge even reaching for the mouse. Now they want to add a third set of inputs?
This sounds like an idea that came from marketing, requiring overriding the ergonomic group when they violently objected. It's a "feature" that gives the salescreatures something to play with at trade shows.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Why is it so hugely popular on /. to jump on MS so hard?
Do you really need someone to explain this to you? It sounds like you're just being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian.
Just in case you're truly confused by this, after all your years on /., I'll let you in on the secret: Most people around here work with technology professionally or are at least technology enthusiasts. A common belief among these people, which is backed up by some solid evidence, is that Microsoft has in the past and continues to engage in extremely unethical business practices which are detrimental to the tech industry as a whole. And they make shoddy products, to boot.
It's strange how you bring up Apple, laying out a false dichotomy, when Linux is the system du jour on Slashdot. But while you're harping on Apple, it should be noted that despite some questionable business practices of their own, they've never been caught attempting to destroy Linux. They've never been caught bribing government officials to get their formats rushed through the ISO. They've never attempted to monopolize a market. Apple makes things that Apple users want, and it doesn't affect those who don't like Apple. Meanwhile, more than a few Slashdotters have to work on Microsoft systems because they have a pointed-haired boss who believes, "everyone uses Microsoft, we're screwed if we're not running Microsoft" despite the fact that it would be in the company's best interest to do business with practically anyone but Microsoft.
A lot of people here think Apple's products are stupid and overpriced, but that's no cause for moral outrage. A quick internet search of "Microsoft controversy" will show you a plethora reason people on /. jump on MS so hard. They're not alone in this category -- there's Cisco and Oracle and others -- but Microsoft will be enemy #1 for a long time to come.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Mod up parent +5 Insightful +5 Informative.
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