The gesture technology has taken the tech world by storm. Nikhil Dawar tells you why this invention is better than the touch
It isn’t long ago when the touch screen technology changed the way we were operating our smartphones, laptops and computers. But now the buzz is around perceptual computing or ‘gesture technology’ which can let you function any system through a single swipe of your finger. Sample this: By waving your hand in front of the system, you can shut down and turn on your laptop or computer at will.
“This perceptual computing allows people to interact with their computing devices by using gestures, expressions, and language that humans use with each other. We need to make technology less intimidating and allow people to interact with devices in a more natural way. We see a future in this space with perceptual computing and are committed towards its integration across various applications that help in fields like education and healthcare,” Debjani Ghosh, managing director, sales and marketing group, Intel South Asia tells you at an Intel event held in the Capital recently.
The technology works on the Fluid Motion software that comes with a 3D camera. “The concept of 3D or infrared cameras is not new. They are used everywhere in the industry but this software is intelligent enough to understand human body and hand gestures in real time,” Raghav Aggarwal, co-inventor of this technology and CEO of TruTech Web Pvt ltd, says. Raghav and his younger brother Abhinav were showcasing this innovative technology at an Intel event where the chip-set manufacturing giant introduced the 4th Generation Intel Core processor family in India.
With this gesture-based interface you can do a lot more things like 3D viewing of the blue print of your house. “With a swipe of your finger, you can go to the next slide of any presentation. As you bring your hand closer to the screen, it will zoom in and vice versa. There are many other fun things that you can do too,” Aggarwal informs.
This gesture-based user interface can be installed to the configured systems of your computer, laptops, as also into your TV and projectors as well.
This software has two versions— the far range and the close range. The far range works more on hand control and has a range from three to 12 feet. The near range software, on the other hand, has an additional finger function feature.
The brothers tell you that it was none other than Hollywood hearthrob, Tom Cruise using his gloves to control all systems in Minority Report that inspired them to come up with this technology.
“We made a map of the human body and understood its different joints. When you put a hand in front of the camera, our software will compare it to the internally stored map and then it will recognise the function according to the hand’s movements. All this happens in a matter of seconds. We had to study the basics of human body very deeply. The software does over 50 frames to get just one function,” Aggarwal adds.
This software, which took almost eight months to be conceived, will be available for domestic use by next month. Priced at Rs15,000 to Rs20,000 for the near range and Rs35,000 for the far range category, this is one of the most sort after technologies.
But will the gesture technology be a game changer in the coming timeIJ “Seven years back, when the touch technology had just come in, tech experts thought it is going to change the scenario in a big way. The situation now is for all to see. There is touch in every possible devise that we can think of. We expect the same from this gesture-based technology,” Aggarwal tells you.
“Incase of touch-based devices, it becomes very difficult to touch every corner of a large screen. But with this technology, we can control the screen from 15 feet away. Also, touch-based lEDs are very costly so we have bought simple lEDs and with the help of this programme we can control that through gestures.
Because of constant touching the touch screens tend to lose their sensitivity whereas in gesture based applications you don’t have to touch the device, so no problems of staining either,” Aggarwal says.
The only challenge that this software could throw up is the use of a virtual keyboard.
“We are working on a air typing software and should come up with a technology that supports this virtual typing very soon. If and when this happens, it will then be possible for people to type on the air and get the desired results,” Aggarwal concludes on a high note.