Friday, July 20, 2007

The Gesture Watch

From Discovery News:

One group of researchers wants to do away with the keyboard altogether. They’ve designed a wristwatch that recognizes hand gestures and uses them for touch-free control of electronic devices such as MP3 players, cell phones, and home appliances. The technology could also be used by a doctor to control a medical device during an operation...
The Gesture Watch has five infrared sensors, four of which sense any hand motion that occurs above the watch. For example, if the user is wearing the watch on his left hand, he can move his right hand over the watch in an up or down, left or right, or circular motion. Different combinations of these movements communicate an action to the watch.

Could be very convenient, but I wonder how often it will be accidentally controlled when in close proximity, say on a crowded subway? Regardless, this is much cooler than rifling thru layers of clothing to find your ipod. I wonder how well it would work through ski gloves? :-)

No comments: