gestures

When Apple showed off Mac OS X Lion at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote speech earlier this year, it was clear the company had paid attention to its successes with the popular iOS devices, and was now beginning to include successful iOS features in its flagship OS.

Also, with Apple laptops and tablets now far outpacing desktop sales, Apple has moved from a primarily desktop computer company to embrace mobile computing. This release of Mac OS X seems to be a reflection of Apple's successes in those categories.

With this eighth major release of the big-cat OS, Apple is … Read more

Harry Potter would be jealous. The folks at ETH Zurich's Flying Machine Arena are making quadrocopters fly around the room with only hand gestures--no wand required.

The little four-rotor helicopter's remote control is hooked up to a Kinect Xbox controller and the controller's cameras are mounted above the user to give it a top-down view of the user's gestures.

Hold your right hand out, and the quadrocopter hovers a set distance away from you in line with your head and hand. Sweep your right hand, and the quadrocopter moves in the direction your hand's moving. Hold your left hand over your head, and the quadrocopter does a loop. Clap, and the quadrocopter lands.

It sure seems like magic; check out the video below.… Read more

Gestures are a powerful and convenient way to control smartphone functions. In this How To, we'll show you how to use gestures to surf the Web on your Android phone.

Before we get started, you'll want to download the Dolphin Browser HD from the Android Market and complete the setup wizard.

You can use gestures in Dolphin Browser HD to navigate the browser. To go backward, forward, refresh, go to the top, go to the bottom, or launch a new tab, simply tap on the gesture button on the lower left-hand corner and draw the … Read more

Ever stand in front of an old TV and move your body around to get better reception? It's a bit like using a Kinect. Apparently, your body and home can become a Kinect of sorts by using electromagnetic fields, according to research at Microsoft and the University of Washington.

The researchers are working on a new system that could turn your home into a big input device. Unlike with the Kinect, however, the player does not have to stand in front of a camera--the controller works with nearly all surfaces and electric appliances in the building.

As outlined in a paper (PDF) presented to the Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI 2011) in Vancouver, the researchers' system makes use of electromagnetic noise to detect a person's position or gestures.

Every home is covered with an electromagnetic field created by power lines and some household appliances. In experiments, conductive pads were placed on the necks of subjects to measure the voltages of electromagnetic signals radiating from walls and power lines.

The pad was connected to a data acquisition device and a laptop carried around in backpacks. The researchers found that they were able to turn nearly any surface or electrical device in the home into an interactive input system. … Read more

When Apple first released iOS 4.3 to developers, they were let in on a secret feature hidden in the OS, specifically designed for the iPad. Developers now had the capability to enable multitasking gestures, which all but eliminate the need for the home button on the iPad. Apple eventually released iOS 4.3 with the hidden feature still available to developers. The good news is you don't have to be a developer to enable this secret feature, we are going to show you how to enable this feature for yourself, for free!… Read more

A year ago, we thought controlling a computer by prodding a meat stylus at its touch screen was the height of next-gen sophistication. Acer may just have reset our expectations, however, with the Aspire Z5763--an all-in-one computer you control by flailing your arms about.

This ridiculously named device has a 2-megapixel Webcam which, according to Engadget, can monitor users' movements using a gesture-recognition system Acer has dubbed ZQ3318P10. Just kidding, it's seen sense and called it something people will actually remember--Acer AirControl.

AirControl can detect the movements of your hand or fingers and can translate those into commands.

"Just wave your hand in front of the desktop and the media control interface is launched," Acer says. You can then move your hand over various icons to adjust volume, rewind, fast forward, play, pause or stop media.

No word on whether or when this device will be coming to the U.S.

Read more of "Acer Aspire Z5763 has gesture-controlled 3D display, forgettable name" at Crave UK. … Read more

Apple provides many great video tutorials online to help users get the most out of their Macs. Included in those tutorials are several about gestures in iPhoto '11. Here are a few more gestures to help supplement those.

Courtesy of curious Mac OS X Hints user tchenj, these hints work with newer trackpads that support multitouch gesturing. I checked out each hint using iPhoto '11 on a 2010 MacBook Pro. So, if you meet the requirements, open iPhoto, select a photo, and click Edit in the toolbar on the bottom of the iPhoto window.

Note: Before you get started, you … Read more

We previewed iOS 4.3 back in January, and now the time has almost come: the latest version of Apple's iOS software will be available March 11.

What's new this time around? Well, not as much as iOS 4.2, but there are some notable upgrades--especially if you're an iPad owner.

Support for additional multifinger multitouch gestures and swipes adds four-finger fast-swapping between open apps and a one-handed way to flick the app dock up, instead of double-clicking the home button. In fact, you'll probably be using that lone physical button a whole lot less now. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Here's another reason besides video chat that you might want a front-facing camera on your next mobile phone: controlling it by waving your arm or moving your hand.

This type of touchless gesture interface is coming to mobile phones from top-tier handset makers this year, promised Ofer Sadka, chief technology officer of a start-up called Extreme Reality based in Herzeliya, Israel, that's commercializing the technology.

In the Texas Instruments booth at the Mobile World Congress show here, he demonstrated two variations of the gesticulation-sensitive interface being used to flip through a photo gallery. One used close-range hand gestures, including rotating a fist to zoom in and out.

The other was from several feet away--it's got an 8-meter range--and used more sweeping arm motions, an experience more akin to Microsoft's Kinect game controller. … Read more