No mouse, remote or keyboard required

This has got to be the next best thing.

Not so much because of what it can do to a computer, although many will welcome an occasional reprieve from mouse-clutching.

It is the anticipation of the things to come that makes the gesture recognition so exciting. Just remember how many minutes — nay, even hours — of your life have been wasted in tracking down the TV remote. Then imagine a TV set that you can control with an elegant wave of the hand.
In case anyone thinks that gesture recognition has anything to do with that now historical “lights off (or on) at the clap of the hands” fad, think again. The clapping of the hands did not have anything to do with the gesture. It had everything to do with the sound. The idea was to progress towards making computers, TV sets and other appliances obediently respond to the voice of their master (us).

Alas, the inroads made in the voice recognition field have remained modest. After fiddling with it for years, the researchers now say that voice recognition technology is too intricate.

In contrast, gesture recognition stands a better chance. The idea is fairly simple: stick a camera atop a computer and leave it to the machine to decipher the meaning of different hand signals. And no, gesture recognition is not just an intriguing vision. Gesture-based interfaces are already among us, and some expect to see this technology make inroads into mainstream consumer electronics markets by 2012.
A pioneer in this field is Toshiba’s Qosmio G55. This laptop lets users control music and video playback, as well as PowerPoint, by using just their hands: no mouse, remote or keyboard is required.

Instead, there is a webcam that senses hand motions from one to three metres away and the laptop’s processor that interprets them in real time. A raised open palm means “stop”. Forming a fist allows you to move the cursor around the screen. Pressing your thumb down on top of your fist makes a selection. Play, pause, rewind, fast forward, sound up or sound down — all those functions can be activated by hand gestures of the user.

Many think that motion-control technology has a lot of potential in gaming. People who never know where the remote is are more interested in having it applied to the TV tuner. Presumably, they can look forward to hours of family fun as everyone tries to out-wave each other in front of the TV set.

Amid all the positive response, there are a few contrary voices from people who think the whole thing smacks too much of exercising.