Dor Givon of XTR3D demonstrates how gesture control can
work
So you've lost your TV remote
control. Again.
Not to worry, says a tiny Israeli start-up company called XTR3D - soon you'll
be able to flick through channels and adjust the volume using only... your hand.
You'll just have to turn your palm towards the screen, and zap away without
ever getting off the couch.
And no need for under-the-skin electronics or fancy microchips.
Instead, the TV - or rather gesture recognition software installed inside -
will "read" your moves and execute appropriate commands, without any need for
physically pressing any buttons.
Based in Tel Aviv, XTR3D is one of the developers of such motion capture
technology, and it has just received $8m (£5m) investment bound to give
"touchless" tech another push - and according to the firm, bring the first
motion control smartphone into the market as early as next year.
US electronics giant Texas Instruments is among the investors.
Using a GPS device without
touching it while driving could be safer
Although the Israeli firm follows in the footsteps of Microsoft's Kinect, the
multi-directional gesture control gaming console that was launched last year and
has since been selling like hot cakes despite the average $200 price tag, its
technology is quite different.
Our target is to penetrate the market, so it will be
something for everyone to try out”
The Kinect has depth sensors, multi-array microphones
and RGB cameras that provide the software with the information it needs to track
both voice and gestures.
XTR3D, on the other hand, uses ordinary 2D cameras - such as a webcam of a
computer or the one in your smartphone - to extract 3D out of a 2D image.
This creates the same three-dimensional effect as on the Kinect.
According to the Tel Aviv start-up's spokesman Roy Ramati, XTR3D's technology
has all the advantages of a 3D camera without any of the disadvantages - it can
work in broad daylight, is much cheaper and uses a lot less power.
"And it can be installed into any consumer electronics device," adds Mr
Ramati.
Dor Givon, XTR3D's founder and chief technical officer, adds that it is even
possible to play a proper Kinect game on a regular laptop that has the software,
touchlessly controlling the device from a distance of a few centimetres to up to
5m away.
Controlling the TV without a
remote would eliminate the need to look for it
And, he says, anyone will be able to afford it.
"Our target is to penetrate the market, so it will be something for everyone
to try out," says Mr Givon.
"New devices will have the interface embedded in them, with older ones you
will be able to download the software from the app store."
Besides gaming and switching TV channels, the existing prototypes include a
PC where it is possible to flip through a PowerPoint presentation just by waving
your hand, a tablet and a smartphone that have features such as using gestures
to create the effect of a joystick, to click, swipe, zoom in and out with a
pinch gesture, and a GPS device that can be controlled touchlessly while
driving.
Ultrasound and optical
Despite being at the forefront of gesture-controlled technology, XTR3D is not
the only firm aiming to make our world touchless.
Various kinds of motion detection have been around for a while.
For instance, simple gesture recognition such as
hovering your hand near a water tap or a toilet flush to activate them are
becoming more and more common.
And after Microsoft paved the way with Kinect, bringing new digital
dimensions to the gaming world, other companies followed.
Microsoft itself is now actively trying to expand Kinect's use into other
industries.
Recently, it announced that it would release a commercial version of the
Kinect software development kit in early 2012.
Microsoft has also teamed up with about 200 businesses in more than 20
countries - among them car manufacturer Toyota and digital advertising firm
Razorfish - for Kinect to reach well beyond gaming.
"The Kinect can sense your entire body for interaction with the device, and
we're only scratching the surface of what can be done because beyond computing
there's a lot of scenarios where this kind of natural user interaction could be
really powerful, a real paradigm shift," says Shahram Izadi, a researcher from
the Microsoft Research Centre in Cambridge, England.
And the creator of the chip that powers the motion-sensing part of the
Kinect, an Israeli company called PrimeSense, is now selling a gadget that has
the same hardware as Microsoft's device.
Once hooked up to a regular computer, it can provide a Kinect-like experience
without the Kinect.
Apple has also filed patents that involve allowing users to touchlessly
"throw" content from one device to another, for example from a tablet onto your
TV screen.
Another electronics giant, mobile chip maker Qualcomm, has recently bought a
small Canadian firm GestureTek.
It targets three devices: tablets (including eReaders), smartphones and TVs,
and uses a combination of cameras and ultrasound.
Ordinary 2D cameras and XTR3D
software turn your tablet into a motion-control device
Ultrasound sensors are there for close range "no-look" gesture control - they
pick up movements with help of a microphone instead of an optical camera,
explains Qualcomm's director of technology Francis MacDougall.
"One issue the Kinect has is an inability to track close to a device. The
default design can track no closer than 50cm - great for TVs but not so good for
tablets and smartphones," says Mr MacDougall.
"So Qualcomm has placed multiple audio sensors - microphones - into their
handset designs to isolate the voice location in 3D space while filtering out
everything else.
"This technique is extremely low power and can track the hand within one to
15cm of the phone."
Touchless world
Imagine that you are driving a car and your child is on the back seat
watching a movie on a tablet - you don't have to divert your attention from the
road, but just by making a gesture near the tablet you would be able to pause it
or turn it off.
And such possibilities are endless, says Mr MacDougall.
With gesture-controlled
interfaces, touching the screen would become unnecessary
For instance, how about answering a phone when you're cooking, eating or
driving without touching the screen or even having to look at it? Or turning
pages on an eReader with swipe gestures? Or skipping to the next song with a
swipe or pausing it with a palm raised?
These touchless features are pretty much what other companies working in the
area have been promising to deliver, but one that relates to TV control is quite
unique to GestureTek.
"We're working on face recognition that will be used to identify each member
of the family and bring up custom interfaces as part of a next generation 'smart
TV' interface," says Mr MacDougall.
To achieve that, the firm is turning to optical solutions, similar to those
used by XTR3D - the standard forward-facing 2D camera and in some cases a stereo
set-up - two standard 2D camera sensors spaced a small distance apart to
calculate the 3D location of any features in the scene.
However the companies around the world are doing it - with regular or
infrared cameras, or with ultrasound sensors, one thing is certain, says Mr
MacDougall.
"Gesture is definitely heating up!"
An even greater percentage of respondents - 87% across all three countries - are also convinced that "contactless will be instrumental in bringing mobile contactless payments to market in the near future".
There are still barriers to take up though - in the UK, the availability of contactless point-of-sale terminals has become a bigger preventative issue for people, cited 34% as a problem compared to 23% the previous quarter.
When acceptance has increased, usage has grown significantly, says Visa, citing the example of McDonald's, where the UK-wide rollout of terminals has seen 32% of UK contactless card owners use them to pay for fast food, compared to just 12% in the previous quarter.
The research also shows that for nearly half of Brits, communication received from their bank either before or after receipt of a contactless card plays a vital role in driving understanding and awareness of the new service. External advertising, through mediums such as TV and posters, is important to 14% of Brits and communication at the point of sale is an issue for 13%.
Mark Austin, head, contactless, Visa Europe, says: "With the number of contactless cards in circulation in the UK forecast to top thirty million by the end of next year and London 2012 set to showcase how the technology offers added convenience, the next twelve months provide an opportunity for the industry to capitalise on contactless payments and further connect with consumers."