LAS VEGAS — Imagine if you could mute your TV just by putting one finger to your lips (the international symbol for "shush!") and turn on off appliances by pointing at them.
You can. In fact, I did just that at CES this year, thanks to software-based gesture technology from PointGrab.
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PointGrab's gesture-driven interfaces are at least as old as the Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion, but in both cases, specialized hardware is rqeuired to play games and control interfaces. PointGrab's software solution works with standard 2D cameras. In one demonstration, it used a Logitech webcam.


By its own measure, PointGrab's technology is already installed in 20 million devices. The Israeli-based company partnered with Samsung for Smart TVs, Lenovo and relatively little-known CE manufacturer TCL.

Despite the lack of 3D information from webcams built into most laptops, tablets and phones, PointGrab's AirTouch system lets you point at icons on interfaces as though you were pressing buttons. It also lets you grab and drag virtual controls. For example, I used my hand to control a special TCL television menu; draw the desired channel number in the air; pause DVR playback; scrub back and forth in the video; and quiet the entire set by putting a finger to my lips. Each gesture was subtle; I never waved wildly at the camera.

The technology means that you can bring interfaces and games intended for touchscreen environments to TVs. The software must first be enabled on your TV and standard webcam.


Company execs acknowledge that the 3D sensing technology from Kinect and PrimeSense enables many of the same features, but PointGrab CMO Assaf Gad said those technologies are focused on a different target.
"It's two different things, what Primsense [now owned by Apple] and other companies that use depth sensors do is very focused on full body resolution. Mainly for games," Gad said. "What we do is totally different. We focus on controlling device. We track face, hands and fingers."

PointGrab offers a free software development kit to encourage more companies to use its gesture technology. The company's free app CamMe uses the iPad's FaceTime camera to read your gestures and let you control the device's cameras. It's pretty rudimentary, but the effect is cool.
The next frontier for PointGrab is using those same gestures to control household appliances. PointGrab announced a partnership with SunPlus Innovation (SunPlusIT) to add gesture control to air conditioners, window shades and lights. In another demonstration, I simply pointed at a PointSwitch-enabled light switch to turn it on and off. It didn’t always work for me, but PointGrab execs had a 90% success rate. They said that PointSwtich will work even if you're standing up to 20 feet away from the sensor.

“We expect that in the next few years, gesture-controlled home appliances will be part of many households around the world,” PointGrab CEO Haim Perski said.
Image: Mashable
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