Tag: Gesture Control

Bixi is the latest gadget that wants your to control your devices with gestures. It offers touch-free and wireless control of your stuff with the wave of a hand. It can control multiple devices like smartphones, displays, e-book readers, apps, and IoT devices like smart lightbulbs. Control your volume and lighting with a simple wave of your hand.

Last year, Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) team unveiled Project Jacquard, which aims to make interactive clothing using conductive yarn and miniature electronics. At this year’s Google I/O developer conference, the company announced that it’s working with Levi’s to release the first consumer product based on Project Jacquard. The Commuter Jacquard Trucker Jacket – actually it’s “Levi’s® Commuter™ x Jacquard by Google Trucker Jacket”, but try asking for that at a store – has a touch-sensitive cuff partially made of the aforementioned conductive yarn.

A few years ago, we saw that Microsoft’s Kinect sensor could be used to control a quadcopter with hand gestures. In the future, we might be able to do that and more using wearable devices, thanks to Taiwanese company PVD+.

A few days ago we talked about Mogees, a tiny digital musical instrument that triggers sound by vibration. The Motus is another unorthodox yet intuitive portable instrument. It lets you create or trigger sounds by motion.

There are different gadgets that can turn bodies, steering wheels or food into musical instruments. Now you can turn pretty much any rigid solid object into an instrument using just one device: Mogees. Mogees consists of a very sensitive contact microphone and an iOS app.

Don’t touch. That should be the motto of Google’s new technology that allows people to control many of their favorite devices without ever laying a hand on them. Dubbed Project Soli, it’s a radar-based system that allows people to do things like rub their fingers together or tap their fingers in order to interact with the machines they love.

While the world awaits for the prophesied Oculus Rift to rise, we’re seeing more and more virtual reality headsets that use smartphones as their brain. However, most of these peripherals are content to provide you a case and a pair of lenses.

One of the Moto X’s convenient features is that you can wave your hand over it to toggle certain apps, such as silencing a call or an alarm or simply to wake the screen. Elliptic Labs’ Multi Layer Interaction technology enables what appears to be a more advanced form of Moto X’s touch-less gesture recognition. Unlike the Moto X or the Leap Motion, which both depend on infrared LEDs and cameras, Multi Layer Interaction uses ultrasound speakers and microphones to detect gestures.

Last week we saw Microsoft Research’s gesture-sensing keyboard prototype that removes the need for a mouse or touchpad. A new keyboard peripheral called Motix achieves the same effect as Microsoft’s keyboard. Its basic function lets you move your finger above the keyboard to control the mouse or simulate a touch input.

Last year we saw a drone camera system that streamed live 3D video that can be viewed through the Oculus Rift headset. Diego Araos wrote a program that not only lets you use the Rift to view the feed from a Parrot AR.Drone

After creating a robot bird and dragonfly, automation company Festo shows off with another impressive animal replica. Like real kangaroos, Festo’s BionicKangaroo is not only great at jumping and keeping its balance, it can also store the energy generated from landing and use it for the next jump. BionicKangaroo uses a combination of pneumatic actuators and electric servos to move and keep its balance. According to Festo, the robot has an rubber elastic spring element that acts like an Achilles tendon: “It is fastened at the back of the foot and parallel to the pneumatic cylinder on the knee joint.

The very talented musician Imogen Heap and her colleagues at Mi.Mu are working on a glove that will allow you to make music by moving your fingers and hands. Think Minority Report, but instead of flipping screens around your movements create sounds.

Many gesture detection devices, including the Kinect and the Leap Motion, use infrared cameras to sense movement. They also have dedicated chips that process the data from the cameras. These components are power-hungry, especially if they’re turned on at all times.

Nowadays it’s quite possible to create and play music live using a computer. You can also use MIDI controllers to make it easier for you to interact with music software and audio files. However, pushing keys and fiddling with knobs isn’t intuitive or fun to watch.

A few years ago we took a look at Pranav Mistry’s Mouseless, a prototype for a camera-based pointing device. Now, a startup called Haptix Touch is raising money on Kickstarter for a very similar – and possibly better – product.

If you had your eye on Ubi Interactive’s multitouch software, you’ll be glad to now that it’s now on sale. For those unfamiliar with the product, sit back and relax. I’ll take you to a world where any surface can become a touchscreen.