Many of us will be glad to know that gesture control
technology is set to make inroads into our homes and
offices.

Not so much because of what it can do to a computer,
although many will welcome an occasional reprieve from
mouse-clutching.

It is the anticipation of the things to come that makes the
gesture recognition so exciting. Just remember how many
minutes - nay, even hours - of your life have been wasted
in tracking down the TV remote. Then imagine a TV set that
you can control with an elegant wave of the hand.

In case anyone thinks that gesture recognition has anything
to do with that now historical "lights off (or on) at the
clap of the hands" fad, think again. The clapping of the
hands did not have anything to do with the gesture. It had
everything to do with the sound. The idea was to progress
towards making computers, TV sets and other appliances
obediently respond to the voice of their master (us).

However, the advances made in the voice recognition
technology have remained modest. After fiddling with it for
years, the researchers now say that voice recognition
technology is too intricate.

In contrast, gesture recognition stands a better chance.
The idea is fairly simple: put a camera on top of a
computer and teach the machine how to decipher the meaning
of different hand signals. And no, gesture recognition
system is not just an intriguing vision. Gesture based
interfaces are already among us, and some expect to see
this technology make inroads into mainstream consumer
electronics markets by 2012.

A pioneer in this field is Toshiba's Qosmio G55. This
laptop lets users control music and video playback, as well
as PowerPoint, by using just their hands: no mouse, remote
or keyboard is required.

Instead, there is a webcam that senses hand motions from
one to three metres away and the laptop's processor that
interprets them in real time. A raised open palm means
"stop". Forming a fist allows you to move the cursor around
the screen. Pressing your thumb down on top of your fist
makes a selection. Play, pause, rewind, fast-forward, sound
up or sound down - those are some of the functions that can
be activated by the user waving and gesticulating in
general direction of the machine.

Many think that motion control technology has a lot of
potential in gaming. People who never know where the remote
is are more interested in having it applied to the TV
tuner. They can look forward to hours of family fun as
everyone tries to out-wave each other in front of the TV
set.

Amid all the positive response, there are a few contrary
voices from people who think that the whole thing smacks
too much of exercising.

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