Written on October 5, 2008 – 9:39 am | by Maria Mihale |


If I told you to think about Tom Cruise’s role in “Minority Report”, you’d probably remember the so-called Pre-cogs, some genetically altered humans who had the special power to see into the future and predict crimes beforehand and the gesture-based interface screen that Chief John Anderton used in the movie. Maybe those pre-cogs will never see the light of the day, but a futuristic device providing a human-computer-interaction has all the chances in the world to become reality.

An organization called Fraunhofer HHI came up with the iPoint Projector, a completely contact-free media device that allows you to rotate virtual objects, press buttons or change the size of onscreen images through simple hand gestures. There is no need for you to wear some special gloves or a sensory equipment, or anything like that, as the device can sense the user’s gestures with its infrared eyes. The only thing you should do is to just show your computer what you want. Ironically, iPoint Projector is more advanced than the one used by Tom Cruise in “Minority Report”. This is probably because reality has always had the power to overdo fiction.



“A man stands in front of a large screen gesticulating in a seemingly hectic manner. As if by magic, images suddenly appear on the display. Their movements follow the actor’s gestures, rotate at the slightest turn of a finger, and become larger or smaller as desired. This scene will look familiar to anyone who has watched the science-fiction film Minority Report”, said Paul Chojecki scientist and project manager at the Frankfurt Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, HHI in Berlin.

As earlier described, the device is similar to watching an iPhone touchscreen projected against the wall, isn’t it? You could easily notice, on the other hand, the “i” in front of it.

The system is based on a set of cameras which allow the computer to observe the person standing in front of the projection screen and when that person starts moving his/her hands, the computer reacts without being touched at all. Chojecki explains that “it begins by determining the position of the user’s index finger, then follows its movements”. Therefore, anyone can operate the device with bare hands and doesn’t need any preparation whatsoever.



This interaction concept has an extended area of implementation, including applications such as interactive POI/POS systems, games, photo viewers and geographic tools like Google Earth. This means that the technology is suitable for usage scenarios where there isn’t possible any contact between the user and the system. The tracking device can be integrated in several ways in the usage scenario, either above the user’s hands by fixing it to the ceiling, or underneath the user’s hands, on a table, or on the ground.

The whole point with such a device is the fact that it’s entirely based on gestures. Gestures are, in fact, very important because allow people who don’t speak the same language to communicate without the need of spoken words and would make possible the communication between humans and technical devices. If commands could be given this way, many situations would be safer and more pleasant than they are today. In addition, physically disabled people could also be helped as they will have the chance to interact with a computer without the need for a mouse and a keyboard.

This is, again, a concept we hope it will soon turn into reality, because, after all, gestures speak louder than words.

(Source coolest-gadgets.com)