British boffins make touchless computing tech on the cheap Researchers at University College London have developed software that lets users control a computer using voice, facial expressions, hand gestures, eye movements, and larger body motions. All that's required is a regular webcam — no special hardware needed. The software, called MotionInput, was developed to enable touchless …
It has no cloud dependency. No DLC, no microtransactions. Doesn't send telemetry or push "exclusive content from carefully-curated partners". No enforced updates. No mandatory account creation. No social media integration.
Please, at least tell me that it has a Modern UI where text and controls are indistinguishable from each other (and the window background) and there are dark patterns to steer you away from the useful options?
Spidey-sense tingling. Does not compute. Error! Error!
First, it doesn't work well on a tablet (which I'm currently using, Surface Go 2) but the problem isn't a lack of power, it's that my face and fingers are too close to the screen.
That said, it shows definite promise, although there are some glitches which is to be expected in an early release. I haven't gone through all the documentation since I avoid RTFM and it's not that intuitive. Voice recognition works, sometimes, as does gesture recognition, which works less reliably on my tablet for the reason detailed above. I haven't figured out how to move the cursor so I can't test the thumb and different finger gestures which can generate mouse clicks.
I may try it on one of my big computers and actually read the documentation.
It's not yet ready for prime time (and I certainly wouldn't want my surgeon using it which was one of their use cases) but I will take another look when it comes out of beta.
"I may try it on one of my big computers and actually read the documentation."
That;s actually, possibly intentionally, quite an endorsement. You installed it and successfully played with it in a non-optimal situation with no instruction and it mostly worked. I look forward to your comments when you've read the user guide and have a more optimal PC or laptop to try it on :-)
I have a potential use-case for it, but placement of a webcam is going to be awkward - it'll either be off to one side or about 8ft away from the user above a projected image. I suppose I could look for a webcam with a zoom lens.
Your experience is that it doesn't like being too close, but how about far away?
M.
> I suppose I could look for a webcam with a zoom lens.
The Raspberry Pi can be used as a webcam; with the newer camera module you have a wide choice of C/CS mount lenses, bound to find one that'll fit your needs. Though the aesthetics of a Pi bolted to camera module aren't to everyone's tastes.
I already run a gazillion* Pis around this place, but from the article I don't think a Pi has the grunt to be able to run the software (leaving aside the fact that it's Windows-only at the moment) which does the image analysis required to locate a user's hand in space and determine if they are making a "click" or "zoom" or "wipe" or whatever gesture...
M.
*rough approximation
Thanks - the hand tracking is the thing which has piqued my interest as it might replicate the function of a device we already use but which is long past its sell-by date. Ideally the camera would be above a projection screen, so something like 3m away from the user and probably 1m above their (seated) head. There might be a way to put the camera behind the screen (which is basically a bit of painted plasterboard) so that it looks through the screen and isn't above the user but that would risk dazzling the camera with the projection.
M.
let me Rush to upvote the reference... no wait... thats an Expanse reference not a reference to the the song Cygnus-X1 by the Canadian rockers... but wait... maybe the ship in Expanse was named after the ship in Cygnus-X1?
Whatever, have a pint and celebrate the lack of heat today.
Let me quote the Hitchhikers Guide for you:
“For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive—you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope.”
" It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program."
Yeah I actually had one of those once. It was a DAB radio which the reception on was so bad, moving about the room would kill the sound. As would the wrong type of weather, lorries going past the house etc.
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