Since the entry of the Kinect system in the videogame panorama, the idea of 'understanding each other through gestures' with an electronic device has taken hold in the market and in the collective imagination. Without a keyboard, without direct contact between the hands and a computer, a mobile phone, an appliance, we will be free to integrate the presence of technology into daily activities.
A new patent introduces a change that can be decisive in the diffusion of controller gestures: it is the first system based on electric fields.
[highlight] What is it about? - [/ highlight] Developed by Microchip Inc, the system (called gestic) does not use a video camera to track the movements of our hands, but creates a 'map' of our gestures through the diffusion of an electric field. The dynamics (you will see it from the video) appears quite precise for this stage of development, and allows the current state to 'turn the page' in reading an ebook, to issue simple commands with circular gestures or to turn off a device by creating a wave with the hand.
I ask myself and I say: won't it hurt yet another magnetic or electric field that is stationed in our range of action? Waiting for important confirmations (or denials) from science, I note that GestIC is a rather weak field, 'diffused only' in a radius of 16 centimeters. For this reason it consumes much less energy than current systems, and is preparing to be an excellent solution for mobile devices, always greedy for energy.
When?
Microchip say this controller will find wide application in a wide range of products already starting from the last months of 2013.
Do I say 'bye bye' with my hand and close this article automatically without touching the keyboard?
It's still early. It's still early :)
Here is the press release (in English): http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/press-release/microchips-new-gestic-technolo.html
