Communications of the ACM
Thumbs Up For Gesture-Based Computing
CSAIL
Fashion crime it may be, but a multicoloured dayglo glove could bring Minority Report-style computing to your home PC.
Interest in so-called gesture-based computing has been stoked by the forthcoming launch of gaming systems from Microsoft and Sony that will track the movements of players' bodies and replicate them on screen. But an off-the-shelf system that can follow delicate hand movements in three dimensions to manipulate virtual objects remains tantalisingly beyond reach.
The problem with systems such as Microsoft's Project Natal for the Xbox is that they do not focus on the detailed movement of hands, limiting the degree to which players can manipulate virtual objects, says Javier Romero, a computer-vision researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Arm movements can be captured but more subtle pinches or twists of the wrists may be missed.
Until now, capturing detail required expensive motion-capture systems like those used for Hollywood's special-effects fests. These utilise markers placed around the body, or sensor-studded data gloves in which flexible sensors detect joint movements. "Really accurate gloves cost up to $20,000 and are a little unwieldy to wear," says Robert Wang, a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Lab.
From New Scientist
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