Gesture recognition enables the virtual remote control

Biometrics comes to home entertainment, and the technology may have law enfrocement and military applications. The key here is a new way of interacting with the various systems of which the home entertainment center consists. The Wave of the Hand technology is a box that lets television viewers change channels, switch on the DVD player, or switch off an irritating presenter or program with the wave of a hand. The controller’s built-in camera recognizes seven simple hand gestures and work with up to eight different gadgets around the home. The developers, Dr Prashan Premaratne and Quang Nguyen, believe the device could be on sale within three years.

The wave of the hand technology was developed at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. Dr. Premaratne said apart from the frustration of sometimes mislaying the remote control just when you need it, they do tend to have different sets of commands which have to be mastered. Other people have tried to replace remote controls with voice recognition or glove-based devices but with mixed results. This device is designed to sit on a shelf or table which has a clear line of sight to the television and the owner. Its software recognizes simple, deliberate hand gestures and then sends the appropriate signal to a universal remote control, designed to work with most makes of television, video recorder, DVD player, hi-fi, and digital set-top box.

The test results were published in the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Computer Vision Research Journal.