Skymouse creates gesture recognition at your fingertips
A new plug-and-play mouse design on Kickstarter follows the movements of your fingertips to control the cursor.
More than a decade after its release, geeks still look to the movie "Minority Report" for inspiration on computer interfaces that use gestures rather than laying your hands on physical devices like mice.
Companies have been busy working on making that reality. Entering the fray is a scrappy, independent Kickstarter project called Skymouse.
The Skymouse works in two parts. The USB receiver sits on your desk, and you wear four small tabs on your fingertips. Infrared LEDs and an IR camera track your finger movements. The mouse replacement is going for a $80 pledge with a $80,000 funding goal.
The Skymouse looks like a fun idea, but it's about to get some serious competition from Leap Motion, which is planning a major launch of its gesture control technology later this month. In comparison, the Skymouse is in working prototype form, but the Kickstarter funds are needed to refine the design and go into production.
It will be interesting to see if the Skymouse can survive, thrive, and find its niche in the computing world. It's certainly tempting to be able to wave your hands in the air like you just do care. Just don't lose your fingertip clips.
