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Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

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Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#11

Post by defrost »

Real time hand sign recognition had a published solution in 2005 ( http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1107692 "an automatic Australian sign language (Auslan) recognition system, which tracks multiple target objects (the face and hands) throughout an image sequence and extracts features for the recognition of sign phrases. ") after about 10 to 15 years of prior work (eg: Hand movement classification using an adaptive fuzzy expert system -https://www.socrates.uwa.edu.au/Pub/PubDetailView.aspx?Publi... ) - 1996).

It's interesting that this work flowed out of research and development in sheep shearing robotics ( http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~jamest/shearmagic/autoshear.h... ) from the late 1970s / early 1980s.

Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#12

Post by ernestipark »

troymc wrote: post #6

I knew Gmail Motion was an April Fools gag --- that's what the link sending me there said, but... It's actually a good idea --- for certain users. In particular, there are many people who use sign language to communicate. For those who sign, what could be more natural than controlling Gmail via sign? And why stop at Gmail? Further reading: http://cad.ca/en/issues/telecommunications.asp

I'm taking a multimodal user interfaces course, and for our final project my partner and I discussed a gesture based interface for GMail on March 31. 10 hours later I saw GMail Motion. Granted, we weren't thinking quite the gesture set Google had in mind, but similar idea.

Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#13

Post by lazerwalker »

motters wrote: post #9

All joking aside, for some users with disabilities this sort of gesture based interface could be really useful. My prediction is that gesture interfaces are going to be used for some basic things, but that most interactions with computers will remain fairly conventional. If you do a time and motion study, the way people currently interact via keyboards, mice and touch screens is pretty efficient. Even with augmented…

Other than someone with serious finger/hand issues, I'm having a hard time imagining a disability that would prohibit someone from using a mouse/keyboard as input but would leave them able to use full-body gestures.

Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#14

Post by lukifer »

daimyoyo wrote: post #4

Has anyone combined the Kinect with iOS yet? That plus the HDMI out from the new iPad to a big screen tv would equal epicness on an unprecedented scale. In fact, I'd actually pay more for that than I did for the iPad itself. Get to work, Apple.

I would bet any amount of money that there are iPad prototypes in R&D that use 2 or 4 front-facing cameras.

Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#15

Post by kabdib »

rimantas wrote: post #8
edanm wrote: post #7

Watching the "joke" made me realize something - there's a chance that, in the future, a lot of communication with computers will be done using sign language. After all, most people (rightly) assume that pretty soon, voice recognition will work well enough that you'll be able to dictate everything to your computer, making keyboards partially obsolete (especially for the majority of users). But everyone also correctly…

I cannot imagine why would I choose to use voice recognition even if I am alone with computer.

In Netflix, today: "Xbox, pause." (handle phone call). "Xbox, play."

For simple commands, it's pretty neat.

"Xbox, order pizza and find a movie that doesn't suck" is probably a few years off :-)

Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#17

Post by anasol »

lazerwalker wrote: post #13
motters wrote: post #9

All joking aside, for some users with disabilities this sort of gesture based interface could be really useful. My prediction is that gesture interfaces are going to be used for some basic things, but that most interactions with computers will remain fairly conventional. If you do a time and motion study, the way people currently interact via keyboards, mice and touch screens is pretty efficient. Even with augmented…

Other than someone with serious finger/hand issues, I'm having a hard time imagining a disability that would prohibit someone from using a mouse/keyboard as input but would leave them able to use full-body gestures.

It is not necessarily a bad idea, and it would not have to be restrained to people with disabilities. The way Google presented the idea was fun but it did make some good sense: it would make us, couch potatoes "have to" move.

Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#19

Post by jrockway »

kabdib wrote: post #15
rimantas wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot imagine why would I choose to use voice recognition even if I am alone with computer.

In Netflix, today: "Xbox, pause." (handle phone call). "Xbox, play." For simple commands, it's pretty neat. "Xbox, order pizza and find a movie that doesn't suck" is probably a few years off :-)

If only there was a small keyboard with a limited set of buttons that could be pressed to command consumer electronics devices. I would call it ... a "remote control".

Re: Gmail Motion April Fools' gag inevitably turned into reality using Kinect

#20

Post by jrockway »

lukifer wrote: post #14
daimyoyo wrote: post #4

Has anyone combined the Kinect with iOS yet? That plus the HDMI out from the new iPad to a big screen tv would equal epicness on an unprecedented scale. In fact, I'd actually pay more for that than I did for the iPad itself. Get to work, Apple.

I would bet any amount of money that there are iPad prototypes in R&D that use 2 or 4 front-facing cameras.

I would bet $10 that there aren't.
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