Gesture technology

Human gesture expressions are very important aspect of our communication system. Primarily we communicate by speech, but gesture is a key supplement in making ourselves understood. Not surprisingly, there are many new markets coming up to work with gesture technology communication.

Advanced multimedia applications can get large benefits from gesture user interface technology. We can use gesture applications for different kinds of tasks, such as movement control and text editing. At the moment, however, gesture technology is being utilized much more by the graphical application field. This market includes 3D software, games and interactive walls. There is still a huge potential to expand the gesture technology market to day-to day tasks, related to non-graphical applications. One example of these a prospective application would be in a document processing program, where we could virtually delete or change words using our hands.

Gesture technology is something quiet recent in the Multimedia world and we still have to figure out all the possible utilities and applications for this technology. There are some companies in the market exploring this world and building amazing applications. Here are some links:
http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/hispace/
http://www.vividgroup.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOjjohg4G-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwdo5HXCxAs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ra4CxNb80
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTEP_voGdFk
3D application

Gesturetek
It was very interesting to see these applications working and understand how they were build. I would like to highlight two applications: the 3D environment and the interactive floor. In the 3D world, the technology behind involves camera capture and real time processing that enables the person who is playing to feel part of the environment.
The Interactive floor looks much simpler, but it has also a enormous impact in the user.

In the other hand this technology has a lot to improve, most of the multimedia environments are still limited to some few hand movements and the user expects more freedom.