EyeSight Technologies announced its fingertip-tracking technology today, CNet reports, which has a similar equivalent in the Xbox Kinect. The company, based in Israel, allows users to remotely control devices from fifteen feet away-- about the same distance as a TV remote. It touts the program as intuitive and easy to install on OEM devices.
The basic requirement is a 2D webcam; devices don't actually have to support touch capability, as it's purely software-based. It is also compatible with 3D stereoscopic and IR illumination sensors. A demo video shows that tracking is efficient and accurate, and especially useful for interacting with larger screens-- the software essentially turns your hand into a mouse, which moves a cursor over the screen and selects with a virtual tap or a flick of the finger.
EyeSight's Touch-Free engines include hand gesture recognition, hand and fingertip tracking, face detection and tracking, and hand signs detection. It can also keep track of multiple people in a crowded room.
The technology will potentially see usage in TV and set top boxes, PCs, mobile phones and tablets, in-car applications and even digital signage, which would come in handy for inquisitive germaphobes who would otherwise bypass touchscreens. At home, it would eliminate fights for dominance of the remote control, but then again it might just cut the middleman and let you skip straight to the fistfight. The software also begs the question of what happens when two people try to give conflicting commands at the same time?
EyeSight is now offering software development kits for Windows, Android and Linux platforms, and is working to implement this in hardware, which the company says may be commercially available starting later this year.
The company was founded in 2005 with the purpose of redefining how people interact with their devices. EyeSight emphasizes "natural human interfaces" and has made progress in gesture recognition technology. Compared to the Kinect, this software is a more affordable option for touch-free control. "Just as Apple made control via touchscreens feel completely natural a few years ago, we're hoping to do the same thing with gesture," Gideon Shmuel, CEO, said in a press release.
