Hand Gesture controls bother me. I see all these fancy implementations enabling hand gestures such as the Google ATAP project called Soli [1], but none of these replace haptical feedback. One of the major aspects of any haptical human-to-machine interface is feedback and robustness. When you turn a high quality 30 indent encoder from Alps [2] or avionics grade Elma encoder [3]; you'll realize the value of haptic feedback. There is a reason why cockpits are full of knobs and dials, although unfortunately, that's changing due to highly integrated multi-function glass instruments.
Problem with hand gestures is robustness. Theramins (hand gesture based music instrument) are cool, but they take forever to master and I am not saying they are trying to replace pianos, but let's just say - iPad pianos are not fun precisely because of the lack of feedback.
I really think gesture based controls are inferior. They have no place in my living room, my car or anywhere in my life.
That said, I think the implementation of hand gesture based systems as pointed out in this article are truly interesting. It is a challenging problem.
I was about to say the same. The hand gesture control is the new "drag and drop" that was overhyped back in late 1990s.
While "drag and drop" has its uses today, it's nowhere as ubiquitous as its proponents back then wanted. Back then, it was forcefully pushed into spaces where it didn't belong.
Same for the gesture controls. Damn you, Minority Report, for putting this idea into the heads of the software business people. It's not all slick hand waving in the air.
I wish we could meet somewhere in the middle for user interfaces in general. We went from dedicated buttons and knobs to slates of glass. I was really hoping for reprogrammable buttons and knobs instead, where labels and scales are replaced with LCD displays.
I remember reading about some Google project that used haptic self-feedback for continuous gesture controls: To turn a virtual knob you'd rub your fingertips in a turning motion and to move a slider you'd slide your thumb along your index finger.
I think that's a pretty clever solution; unfortunately I can't find the blog post right now.
Problem with hand gestures is robustness. Theramins (hand gesture based music instrument) are cool, but they take forever to master and I am not saying they are trying to replace pianos, but let's just say - iPad pianos are not fun precisely because of the lack of feedback.
I really think gesture based controls are inferior. They have no place in my living room, my car or anywhere in my life.
That said, I think the implementation of hand gesture based systems as pointed out in this article are truly interesting. It is a challenging problem.
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0
[2]http://www.alps.com/prod/info/E/HTML/Potentiometer/RotaryPot...
[3]https://www.elma.com/en-as/products/rotary-switches/rotary-s...