The introduction of Microsoft’s Project Natal recently has spawned a whole new way of thinking about technology. No longer will we need to use hand held devices to communicate with our computers or televisions, all we will need is our own bodies. Microsoft is set to release the fruit of Project Natal later this year as a response to the wildly popular Nintendo Wii game system. The new technology will become a part of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 system and will require absolutely no controllers.
This technology is not just for gaming systems, however. Hitachi is set to launch a television later this year that will have gesture technology built right into it. This technology will eliminate the need for a remote control, which could be a godsend to all of those people (myself included) who have a tendency to lose remotes. The gesture technology that will be built into these televisions can also control the heat and air conditioning in your house, turn the lights on and off, answer the phone, and control your computer. These televisions will essentially do everything except make you a sandwich (you’ll still have to get up off the couch to get that done).
The technology that will make this all possible is based on 3D digital cameras. Essentially a very small 3D camera will be built into your flat screen TV. This camera can read specific hand gestures, which will be used to control different functions of the TV. The microchips that make this type of three dimensional viewing by a camera possible were developed by a Silicon Valley company called Canesta. The software that will run on these chips, and therefore make the recognition of one hand gesture (such as the channel-changing gesture) recognizable over another (the volume-changing gesture) was developed by GestureTek, a company that has been working on this technology for over 20 years. The camera’s technology will also allow it to tell the difference between two people in a room, paying attention to one person over the other depending on how the camera is set. The camera will also discriminate between “meaningful” hand gestures and gestures that are not meant to control the TV so you won’t inadvertently change the channel while gesturing wildly at a football game. A video describing the new technology can be seen here:GestureTek on The Today Show
Gesture technology is certainly not perfect, at least not yet, but it is a far cry from having to worry about misplacing three different remotes just to turn on your TV. This technology has the potential not only to revolutionize the gaming industry, but also to revolutionize the way that we interact with the technological systems in our lives.
