From Remote controls, joysticks and the mouse, it’s time to get to the real deal in reality.

Imagine this – you’re watching an old rerun, and then suddenly you remember that it’s time for your favorite show in a channel about 30 or 40 channels away from the current one. You frantically search for the remote control, but you don’t find it anywhere. What would you do?

Just move your hand, and the TV would understand that the channel has to be changed.

Since the first mouse was wired to the PC, electronics that understand hand gestures is going to be one of the next most significant changes in the industry. Microsoft, Hitachi and other major PC makers are already geared up to begin selling devices that can control electronics such as TV and computer screens with simple hand gestures.

Watch the video below for a demo from GestureTek who specializes in gesture device software.

Microsoft’s upcoming XBox offering called Project Natal will take this technology mainstream later this year. Project Natal is a revolutionary way of gaming, where you won’t need a separate controller such as a joystick. Here’s a bit more about it. Following this would Hitachi release it’s new generation television where people can operate and switch channels and other functions such as volume by simple hand gestures, without using any remote control of any sort. Computer devices such as Laptops and Desktops will follow the same route.

The challenge that the gesture device industry had to face was to identify the types of hand gestures which would be interpreted as a command to do a task. For example, the channels should not switch just because the viewer bent forward to pick up a glass or maybe scratched his nose. GestureTek had spent a long time (about 20 years) and already has some good amount of success in this, by using 2D cameras. But the current breakthrough includes 3D vision including the extra dimension to recognize movement and depth.

Photo – Courtesy: Flickr (shared under CC)