iPoint 3D - Using fingers as a remote control

The heart of iPoint 3D is a recognition device, not much larger thana keyboard, that can be suspended from the ceiling above the user orintegrated in a coffee table. Its two built-in cameras detect hands andfingers in real time and transmit the information to a computer, saysPaul Chojecki, a research scientist at the HHI, explaining thetechnology.

The system responds instantly, as soon as someone in front of thescreen moves their hands. No physical contact or special markers areinvolved. The small device is equipped with two FireWire cameras -inexpensive, off-the-shelf video cameras that are easy to install.

In addition to its obvious appeal to video gamers, iPoint 3D canalso be useful in a living room or office, or even in a hospitaloperating room, or as part of an interactive information system.

"Since the interaction is entirely contactless, the system is idealfor scenarios where contact between the user and the system is notpossible or not allowed, such as in an operating room," Chojecki says.The HHI invention can thus be used not only to control a display butalso as a means of controlling other devices or appliances. Someonekneading pastry in the kitchen, whose hands are covered in dough, canturn down the boiling potatoes by waving a finger without leavingsticky marks on the stove. In an office, for example, an architect canperuse the latest set of construction drawings and view them from allangles by gesture control. The finger is the remote control of thefuture.

Source: physorg.comAdded: 30 July 2009