Hand Gestures Replace Buttons in Tech

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July 17, 2007 — It won’t be long now before all electronic devices go "nano," and shrink to the size of frosted mini wheat square. You won’t know whether to turn it on or eat it. But the real question is: How do you press those teeny buttons?

One group of researchers wants to do away with the keyboard altogether. They’ve designed a wristwatch that recognizes hand gestures and uses them for touch-free control of electronic devices such as MP3 players, cell phones, and home appliances. The technology could also be used by a doctor to control a medical device during an operation.

Such a watch could help keep operating rooms sterile and make diminutive devices less silly.

"Apple’s iPod shuffle can be the size of a hearing aid, but the user controls would be awkward. Imagine people on the subway putting a finger in their ear canal to change a track," said Jungsoo Kim, a graduate research assistant at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Kim developed the watch with colleagues Jiasheng He, Kent Lyons and Thad Starner.

The Gesture Watch has five infrared sensors, four of which sense any hand motion that occurs above the watch. For example, if the user is wearing the watch on his left hand, he can move his right hand over the watch in an up or down, left or right, or circular motion. Different combinations of these movements communicate an action to the watch.

For example, sweeping the right hand once over the watch may mean "power on" a clockwise circular motion may mean "shuffle" and pausing the hand over the watch may mean, "power down."

The fifth sensor gathers the motion data and uses a Bluetooth wireless transmitter to send the information to the electronic device — let’s say an ear-bud-sized MP3 player. With a sweep here and a circle there, the user can turn on a device, select a song, turn the volume up or down, and shut down all with a few simple hand motions.

"One of things that's innovative is that they are using the space above the watch to give commands," said Joe Dvorak, distinguished member of the technical staff at Motorola in Plantation, Fla. With the watch in a fixed location and the opposite hand motioning the commands, the device should be able to distinguish a good variety of gestures.

The watch is a prototype and still in the "bulky enough to be worn by Professor Frink of 'The Simpsons'" category. But the team plans to streamline it by incorporating smaller sensors and a thinner battery. Ironically, reducing the size of the Gesture Watch could get the researchers in the same predicament they are trying to solve, said Dvorak.

"You want to make things as small as possible and as non-obtrusive as possible. But there comes a point where you make them so small that you make them harder to use. The same thing could be happening here," he said.

With a smaller watch, the sensors will have to be placed closer together and that could make it more difficult for the watch to distinguish gestures. But if Kim and his team can solve that problem, they could solve the problem of controlling tiny handheld electronics. And that’s a lot better than having to stick your finger in your ear.