Last year, we checked out a light switch that let you toggle lights just by waving your hand. Knocki lets you do that and more but by knocking or tapping on a surface.
Unlike the Clapper, Knocki doesn’t use microphones to detect knocks.
“Wearable tech” is the latest big trend and the buzziest buzzword of the moment. Techies are figuring out what works, old people are either hating all of it or trying to buy stock in some of it, and horologists are trying to figure out where they stand on the subject of smartwatches.
Even with the rise of touch input, the mouse and keyboard remains the best and most flexible computing setup. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be improved upon. Microsoft Research recently developed a mouse and keyboard hybrid that allows users to type and make multitouch input on the same device.
There’s been rampant speculation about what the new Xbox 720 (codenamed “Durango”) video game console might have in store for us later this year, and now we have some answers. As more and more companies jump on the smartwatch bandwagon, the it’s been revealed that the next-gen Xbox won’t be a console in the traditional sense at all.
From time to time, I’ve had a comfortable office chair. Though when you move, change jobs, etc., chairs seem to get a lower priority than more essential things. That being said, there’s something good about having a well-designed chair, which will let you sit for hours without feeling uncomfortable.
The G.I.A. (Gestural Interactive Automaton) is a robotic sculpture that was created by Daniel Jay Bertner. It is mounted on the wall and it is basically a projection sphere and a webcam attached to three servo-controlled articulating arms.
The ubiquity of touchscreen-equipped devices have popularized the use of intuitive and simple gestures to command gadgets. But gestures shouldn’t be the only thing to consider when making a device, or we might end up with something like the Air Clicker concept.
Here’s an unusual add-on I stumbled onto at CES earlier today. It’s made by a Korean outfit called Touch UI, and the case is called the Back Touch. It does exactly what it sounds like – it gives you a second touch surface on the back of the iPhone 4.
There are already remote-controlled robots out there that allow an operator to control robotic arms using their own hands. Doctors are even using such technologies to perform remote surgery. But this is the first time I’ve seen a robotic arm that can be controlled simply through gestures.
I’ve been thinking about computer interfaces for a while, and I was pleasantly surprised that Microsoft is embracing the hacking of the Kinect, instead of shunning it. The latest hack includes using the Kinect as an interface for your computer.
Seriously, will the future be button-less? What’s up with this surge of motion- and gesture-based UIs? Aside from Microsoft and Sony working on motion-based gaming controllers, Hitachi is also currently working on a Minority Report-ish interface.
Not to be confused with Guru Bhakti, the GuruBhakts are special robots designed to operate in a “follow-the-leader” mode. The ultimate plan for these ‘bots is to allow a remote driver to steer a single robot into a hazardous environment, and the other robots would follow in turn from that single set of actions.
It seems like we’ve been using keyboards and mice for decades now (and yes, we have). Will there ever be a better way to interact with a computer? Probably, and you can bet that it will probably be touch or motion sensor-based.
Remember those gesture control gloves Tom Cruise wore in Minority Report? Well, starting in 2010, you’ll be able to work similar magic with your fingertips thanks to the new Peregrine gesture glove.
The unusual computer controller features over 30 touch points which can be used to interact with your games and other software like you’ve never done before.
Yuta Sugiura and his colleagues at the Graduate School of Media Design in Keio University had a valid starting point – most of the software or hardware input systems today have no direct correlation to the command to be executed, and so are not that easy to master.