Comments on: Using gestures to interact with surfaces that don't have screens

By: abraxiom

abraxiom — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:03:00 +0000

It would seem to me that based on the examples they give, that it is actually “just” measure the amount of skin contact with the contacted object. Perhaps different areas of skin have different, um, electrical properties but it is not so much gesture recognition in itself. I think the next step is to do a lot of interaction design type stuff to see what configurations of multiple zones could produce more meaningful information. Also the variety of gestures and body types, yadda yadda

Also, couldn’t you make the “doorknob” itself have different resistive qualities across its surface in a pattern in order to increase the information while still only having one line of connection. Boolean logic in neural networks comes to mind.

I’m sure they have thought of this stuff, it just seems like they spin it a really weird way.

By: Neill "Dire" Mitchell

Neill "Dire" Mitchell — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:31:00 +0000

Electric Potential sensing has some interesting things to offer the Gesturing world.
http://www.plesseysemiconductors.com/products/epic/videos/

Disclosure – I work for the company linked above.

By: bigomega73

bigomega73 — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:18:00 +0000

Instead of nonense gestures for controlling your media player/cell phone, why not have the device just recognize ASL gestures. That way everyone gets to learn ASL while they learn how to control their devices. Seems like a wasted opportunity if they just make up their own gestures to me.

By: Michael Crumpton

Michael Crumpton — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:35:00 +0000

This is the most interesting advance in touch sensing in a long time.

By: sam1148

sam1148 — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:46:00 +0000

Unfortunately, I bet the first use Disney will put this to will be improved biometrics for park passes, or stern automated warning for kids that drag their hands in the water on a ride, or put their elbows on the table in the Prime Time Cafe.
(which would be kinda cool if they had a Rosie the Robot roaming around the place).

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:17:00 +0000

what it’s going to lead to is a generation of kind constantly poking inanimate objects in the hopes that it would tell them what to do.

By: David Smith

David Smith — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:16:00 +0000

Child dips spoon in cereal bowl: reasuring DING! Child flings spoonful of cereal across the room. Child dips spoon in cereal bown to refill: another reassuring DING! This will end well.

By: Dan Hibiki

Dan Hibiki — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:16:00 +0000

“You watch this door, it’s about to open again. I can tell by the intolerable air of smugness it suddenly generates.” – Marvin

By: Ken Williams

Ken Williams — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:58:00 +0000

Not to sound *too* cheeky though. I mean, it seems like progress in capacitive sensing is pretty obviously sellable, with lots of obvious marketable applications.

By: Ken Williams

Ken Williams — Mon, 07 May 2012 02:56:00 +0000

Finally. I’ve been waiting for an advancement in proper-food-implement-training technology. This could be the real shit.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:11:00 +0000

Daffy Duck will be thrilled.

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:42:00 +0000

point and shoot

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:35:00 +0000

You were giving the world the middle finger before it was cool.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:27:00 +0000

At least in this case, I get the last laugh. The gestures I’ve been using all these years have saved me from repetitive strain injuries that many others have by now. Not to mention I’ve been getting much more work done in less time. Those wrist-crippled stubborn sumbitches should have listened to me.

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:15:00 +0000

All jokes aside, the concept could have a lot of applications for rehab after a stroke or brain injury, not to mention cognitive disability.

By: bunnyvision

bunnyvision — Sun, 06 May 2012 21:50:00 +0000

This does seem like a logical extension of the touchscreen mentality. Creeps me out, though.

By: cramerica

cramerica — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:52:00 +0000

By your command

By: SmokingHeartDesigns

SmokingHeartDesigns — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:16:00 +0000

Yeah people don’t believe me when I talk about what’s coming either.

By: keighvin

keighvin — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:13:00 +0000

“Negative reinforcement” (the removal of conditions or stimulus as a consequence) does not mean “punishment” (the application of undesired conditions or stimulus as a consequence). They’re often related, but the term “negative reinforcement” has very specific meaning in psychology.

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:26:00 +0000

I’ve been gesturing at the world for years.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:40:00 +0000

Not one of wikipedia’s best efforts. It reads like a marketing brochure. The bold text bothers me.

By: Cowicide

Cowicide — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:45:00 +0000

I’m so glad the rest of the world is coming around to my world. Welcome to my world.

2003:
http://forums.macnn.com/82/applications/176033/this-will-add-great-gui-functionality/

Cowicide
Yes, I’m smug (and bitter).. because I got a lot of shit from naysayers for well over a decade who are now gesturing their asses off (like me) now.

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:53:00 +0000

If this is the future, wilderness is about to get a lot more important.

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:52:00 +0000

“Absolutely ghastly. Just don’t even talk about it.”

By: MarcVader

MarcVader — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:50:00 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface …

By: Nathan Hornby

Nathan Hornby — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:18:00 +0000

Microsoft does make hardware, in fact they make mice, as referenced in the comment you’re replying to :)

By: Jer_00

Jer_00 — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:18:00 +0000

”Microsoft doesn’t make hardware”

Tell that to the XBox guys. Especially the guys who have spent some serious energy working on the Kinect.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:01:00 +0000

What comes up on the window when you slam the door violently?

*NOT NOW, THE BOSS IS IN A BAD MOOD*

By: Jethro Taylor

Jethro Taylor — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

ASL to speech synthesizer, anyone?

By: tré

tré — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:41:00 +0000

I don’t know about that. Microsoft doesn’t make hardware, so hardware really doesn’t embarrass them. Apple has been using multi-touch gestures without screens for years now in their trackpads. You could say that needing hardware like a trackpad as opposed to just using the body or something else hooked up to this is embarrassing, but that doesn’t quite mesh with the whole “total product package” philosophy. It does fit in nicely with the “as intuitive as possible” philosophy, though, so who knows?

Edit: I stand corrected. That’s what I get for trying to stand up for Microsoft, I guess.