Computing Gets Physical
From: Technology Review - 08/01/2004 - page 56
By: David Kushner

Gesture recognition technology has finally started to emerge from the domain
of science fiction into reality, and it is the ambition of the technology's
proponents and developers to make it the remote control of the 21st century.
One example is the EyeToy, a peripheral for Sony Computer Entertainment's
PlayStation 2 game console that places the real-time image of the player into
the gaming environment through a video camera connected to a USB port. Video
from the camera is compressed and funneled through the USB port, and
processed via "conceptual abstraction" in the PlayStation; players interact
with the game by moving their body around. For EyeToy to work, one must stand
in a specific place relative to the camera, but Cybernet's GestureStorm
software system does not have this limitation. GestureStorm is used by TV
weathermen to manipulate the display of meteorological forecasts through
gestures. Other gesture recognition technologies Cybernet is readying for
commercial release include Navigaze, an interface that taps eye movement, and
Use Your Head gaming technology that enables users to input directional
commands through head movement. Gesture recognition could be used to enhance
rather than displace conventional interfaces: One example is a personal
digital assistant from Canesta that projects the image of a keyboard onto a
flat surface, and uses an infrared light beam to track the location of the
user's fingers at any time. Other gesture recognition interfaces include a
"gesture panel" developed by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers that
could enable motorists to control various automotive systems without taking
their eyes off the road, and a "conversational humanoid" from MIT that
detects and reacts to a person's movements as they are recorded by a wearable
tracking device. 

EyeToy:
http://www.eyetoy.com/  (requires Flash)
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0%2C2101%2C59808%2C00.html
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/12/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.08/play.html?pg=1

GestureStorm:
http://www.cybernet.com/products/gesturestorm.html

Navigaze:
http://www.cybernet.com/products/about.html
http://www.asc2004.com/23rdASC/summaries/m/MP-05.pdf
http://www.gcn.com/23_22/cover/26868-1.html
http://www.gesturecentral.com/useyourhead/




