Gesture Control Functions
“Kinect” With NASA’s Latest Mission: A Mars Rover Landing Simulation
On Sunday evening (just a half hour beyond 4 days away, as I type this, in fact), NASA's latest Mars rover, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL, aka "Curiosity"), will hopefully navigate to a successful landing on the Red Planet (PDF). The 11-minute video above, brought to you by the JPLnews YouTube channel, depicts key events
Leap Motion: Garnering Software Developer Devotion
Back in late May, I introduced you to Leap Motion, the hardware developer of an upcoming gesture interface peripheral for computers (and perhaps, in the future, other devices). At the time, I mentioned: The company is hoping to create a vibrant third-party software ecosystem for its hardware, and is currently accepting developer applications. Lest there
Samsung’s Smart TVs: Here Come The Gesture Interface APIs
Remember those camera-inclusive televisions unveiled by Samsung at January's CES, which have caused no shortage of controversy, along with at least one humorous (albeit arguably sexist) commercial? Well, Samsung's just released v3.5 of their associated SDK for third-party developers, which supports (among other things) not only Samsung's proprietary IDE but also the Eclipse IDE and
Quadrotors And Other Drones: Gesture Interfaces Send Them Off And Bring Them Home
The July issue of Wired Magazine, which I received in the mail just the other day, contains an excellent cover story which I commend to your attention. Entitled "How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom," it's written by publication Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson and discusses (in Anderson's usual humble fashion…ahem…) the flourishing interest in autonomous
CEVA And eyeSight: A Silicon-Plus-Software Gesture Interface Combination Done Right
Back in late November, I reported that gesture interface middleware developer eyeSight had received a notable funding injection from processor core provider CEVA. More recently, you learned that the companies are co-presenting at an upcoming webcast…which is tomorrow, in fact, so don't forget to register and attend! The two are obviously quite tight. So it
The Next-Generation Microsoft Kinect: Inching Ever Closer To Perfect?
Last November, rumors began circulating in cyberspace regarding the next-generation Microsoft Kinect peripheral…that it would be, for example, accurate enough to read the lips of people sitting in front of it, along with delivering improved motion tracking and voice recognition (the latter by virtue of the camera peripheral's integrated microphone array), and being "able to
Samsung’s Galaxy S III: A Smartphone That Takes Embedded Vision Seriously
Back in early May, I dedicated a news writeup to Samsung's just-announced and latest-generation Galaxy S III smartphone, by virtue of its abundance of embedded vision talents. Since it's based on the Android v4 O/S, it automatically supports Google's facial recognition unlock scheme (which Samsung has augmented by requiring you to not only stare into
Omek Interactive’s Beckon: Gesture Interfaces Now On The Texas Instruments-Based BeagleBoard-xM
Hopefully, some of you have already had the opportunity to audition the recently published presentation done by Jonathan Epstein, Omek Interactive's President, at the late March Embedded Vision Alliance Summit: Jonathan spoke at length about Beckon, one of the two primary gesture interface middleware-and-tools products supported by the company, the other being Grasp. In both
Making Commercials More Engaging: Embedded Vision’s Trying
Some of you may have been already following the recent spat of back-and-forth lawsuits between DISH Networks and a group of broadcasters. In brief, at January's CES (Consumer Electronics Show), DISH introduced a PVR (personal video recorder, also sometimes called a DVR aka digitial video recorder) called Hopper, which simultaneously recorded up to six programs
The Evolution Of Gesture Interfaces: Leap Motion Achieves A Press Coverage Clean Sweep
We in the embedded vision industry live in amazing times, I'm regularly (and thankfully) reminded. Not a single day goes by lately that I'm not archiving an information tidbit (or, usually, multiple ones) for future consideration in a news writeup, an article, or a video interview. And the breakthroughs aren't just being covered by narrowly
Don’t Use Samsung’s New Smart TVs While Standing In Front Of A Window
Samsung's new webcam-implemented, function-augmented televisions may be controversial from a privacy standpoint, and may be sluggish and otherwise underwhelming on their operation. But the company sure seems to know how to promote them, as the above commercial suggests. 😉 Thanks to GigaOM for the heads-up. And a happy upcoming Memorial Day weekend to my Stateside
Microsoft’s Kinect SDK v1.5: Now Live
It seems like just last week that I was mentioning, in a Kinect-themed introductory letter to the Embedded Vision Insights newsletter, that version 1.5 of the Kinect for Windows SDK was queued up for release by month end. Actually, it was just last week. And although Microsoft's late-March blog post announcing the news had indicated
Gesture Interfaces Via Sound: Clever Ideas Abound
File this one under "cool concept; unclear implementation fit." Microsoft Research and the University of Washington have partnered to develop SoundWave, a proof-of-concept system that leverages a computer's microphone and speaker combo to implement rudimentary gesture control. Doppler shifts, akin to those harnessed by sonar and astronomers, are at the root of the scheme. The
The Gesture Interface: Another Asian Smartphone Manufacturer Thinks It Makes Sense
Back in early November, I mentioned that South Korean cellphone manufacturer Pantech had begun augmenting some of its products with gesture interface capabilities, courtesy of the Embedded Vision Alliance's newest member, eyeSight Mobile Technologies. Add Chinese developer Huawei to the gesture interface supporter list; as reported at Engadget earlier today: The company's North American research
March 2012 Embedded Vision Alliance Summit Panel Discussion
Jeff Bier, Founder of the Embedded Vision Alliance and co-founder and president of BDTI, moderates the panel discussion "Beyond Kinect; From Research to Revenue," at the March 2012 Embedded Vision Summit. Also participating are Jim Donlon (Project Manager, DARPA), Bruce Kleinman (Corporate Vice President, Platform Marketing, Xilinx), Bruce Flinchbaugh (Fellow and Manager of Vision R&D,
eyeSight: The Embedded Vision Alliance’s Latest Member Takes Flight
Back in early March, I told you about the Embedded Vision Alliance's then-latest member, CogniMem Technologies. Less than two months later, I'm happy to share with you the news that the EVA has expanded yet again, to include Israel-based eyeSight Mobile Technologies. The company name will be a familiar one for regular visitors to the
Gesture Recognition: Enabling Natural Interactions With Electronics
By Dong-Ik Ko (Lead Engineer, Gesture Recognition and Depth-Sensing) and Gaurav Agarwal (Manager, Gesture Recognition and Depth-Sensing) Texas Instruments This is a reprint of a Texas Instruments-published white paper, which is also available here (2.6 MB PDF). Introduction Over the past few years, gesture recognition has made its debut in entertainment and gaming markets. Now,
Unwanted Surveillance: An Inevitable Outcome of Consumer Non-Cognizance?
Remember the Samsung image sensor-inclusive televisions that I first mentioned in early January, with a follow-up blurb last Friday? Well, thanks to a Slashdot heads-up earlier today, I've got even more to say…and it's disturbing, to say the least. The title, "New Samsung TV Watches You Watching It," may be a sufficient topic tip-off, but