Elliptic Labs To Bring Touchless Gestures To iPad 55
An anonymous reader writes "Elliptic Labs will reveal their Touchless Gesture User Interface technology at CES 2011. Elliptic Labs sprung forth from the signal processing environment at the University of Oslo and what they've come up with is an [iPad] dock which creates a 'touchless zone' that extends out about 1 foot in front and to the sides of the iPad screen. Users can then initiate a number of gestures, much like on Microsoft Kinect, to manipulate onscreen content."
Good, now put it in a kitchen appliance! (Score:5, Insightful)
I see usage scenarios for computers in the kitchen all the time, and each time I cringe at the thought of what the interfaces on those things will look like after typing/touching them with hands full of whatever foodstuffs the cook was working with. Market something like this for an iPad in the kitchen and I'd consider it useful.
Inefficient, clumsy, awkward appearance (Score:4, Insightful)
After watching the video, I conclude this is grossly inefficient. For example, instead of touching the display and moving a finger say an inch or two, one has to move their entire arm about 18-to-24 inches.
Also consider the unintended consequences from making these gross gestures in proximity to persons or objects: accidentally hitting someone and knocking things over (e.g., your Iced Caffè Mocha). One simply would not want to use this in a crowded, cluttered place.
Plus one would look ridiculous the faster one tried to gesture!