Intel Corporation introduced the Creative Senz3D interactive gesture camera - a laptop embeddable 3D camera - at Computex 2013 on Tuesday. The company expects that 3D depth cameras will be available in Intel devices by the second half of 2014.
That means your computer's camera could soon detect your movement relative to your computer, allowing for a 3D interface with various programs.
The Senz3D uses depth sensor technology and dual array microphones to create a multi-dimensional environment that's more conducive to perceptual computing. The camera will be used to enhance computer use experience and, according to a press release, will allow for a richer gaming, video conferencing and voice control experience. The Creative Senz3D technology comes with games and apps like Million Minions and Idol Hands, which work by letting users interact with the game with their hands in the space in front of the computer. Along with the games comes software that will enable interactive features such as video conferences with Skype VCD, video blogs with Touchcast, and voice control with Dragon Assistant 1.5.
SoftKinetic invited Engadget to preview its technology used in Intel's future 3D depth camera, the DS530. That camera is capable of being embedded in a laptop. The close-range gesture tracking equipment was already installed in a test laptop when Engadget was able to test out its tracking features. In their video, they show that device is able to track the motion of a face near the screen, recognize hand motions, can tell the difference between left and right hands and can recognize individual fingertips.
Although representatives for the SoftKinetic stressed that the perceptual computing technology is in its early stages, Engadget reporters are enthusiastic about its future applications. Concievably, the camera could be pulled out of laptops - or, as is the current case, sold separately - for hackers to play around with much like they did with Microsoft's Kinect sensor.
Intel has long been eager to speed up the time-to-market of perceptual computing, and with this technology, they might just be well on their way.
Computex is one of the largest computer and technology expos in the world, and is currently underway in Taipei, Taiwan.
