Gesture Recognition

There have been numerous attempts to develop an alternative to the keyboard and mouse human-to-computer interface. Apotact Labs recently joined the fray with a four-finger glove-like design called Gest that allows you to control your computer and your mobile devices with your hands.

MotionSavvy has launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for its Uni technology. The solution is a combo that helps deaf and hard of hearing people to communicate with non-deaf people who don't understand sign language in real time.

Imagine if your smartphone was ringing away in your bag or pocket, and you were able to silence it simply by waving your hand in the air – without even taking the phone out. Well, that could soon be a reality, thanks to new gesture-recognition technology known as SideSwipe.

Inspecting products on the assembly line can itself be expensive, time consuming, and not as accurate as it should be. To speed things up a bit, BMW has developed a new system for inspecting bumpers that uses gestures to allow inspectors to literally point out defects.

Researchers are working on a possible alternative to typed passcodes. They've discovered that passwords consisting of hand gestures used to draw free-form lines on a smartphone or tablet screen are much more difficult for "shoulder surfers" to copy after seeing.

Gesture recognition devices may indeed offer more functionality than is possible using just a keyboard, but in order to use them, users have to lift their hands away from that keyboard. A Microsoft team decided to address that problem, and created a keyboard that recognizes hand gestures.

California-based Logbar aims to take finger wagging to the next level with Ring, which pairs with devices via Bluetooth to allow control of mobile devices and home appliances, make electronic payments and even type text in mid air with a wave of a finger.

Aireal is a new haptic technology from Disney Research which fires small rings of air that allow people to feel virtual objects without actually touching anything.

Microchip Technologies has developed the world's first gesture recognition chip based on measuring changes in a 3D electric field.

Microsoft showed off its Digits system that tracks hand movements without a glove.

Building on the company’s core “OKAO Vision” facial image sensing technology, OMRON has developed a new hand gesture recognition technology compatible not only with Windows PCs, but also Android and iOS mobile operating systems.

Microsoft Research has developed a gesture recognition system called SoundWave that relies on sound instead of video to bring gesture recognition capabilities to a standard laptop or desktop computer without the need for any additional hardware.