Gesture Watch from Georgia Tech

Here is another aspiring wannabee HCI star at the gesture firmament: the gesture watch.

Activate! The Gesture Watch has five infrared sensors, four of which sense any hand motion that occurs above the watch. 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. (source)

Why do such applications receive so much credit in the various tech news sites and magazines? The only thing happening is that a couple of engineers have put together a neat device that can do a trick. It's not commercially available, there are no real users yet, there is no positive market feedback. There is only a vague promise of solving a vague problem. Discovery Channel: 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? I know that writing an opening line can be hard, but this one has fallen straight from the sky on the willing imagination of Tracy Staedter (the reporter in question). Did she not notice the big display on the iPhone? People may not want tiny devices at all, because they need displays. And yes, they may also require decent buttons from their devices. In other words, the premises of the promises are promiscuous (sorry, couldn't resist); reporters are trading in their objective reflection for a nice soundbite.

Gesture Remote Control for TV

Two guys in Australia have given humanity the ultimate killer application for gesture recognition: Just the thing we needed, really. I am going to throw my remote away as soon as I can get this little gem of technology: something that solves the giant problems we are having with TV remote controls (and replaces them with a whole new set of problems). I think about twenty problem scenarios popped up simultaneously in my head fighting for priority. But I am just too lazy to type them all in. Instead I will just shrug this one off and save myself the calories.

Gesture Wellformedness

I am running an experiment on the acceptability of variation in sign language. One of the things that touch upon this matter is sign wellformedness, which supposes a certain sign language phonology with rules that tell whether a sign is wellformed or not. I am not done thinking that one over but it did get me thinking: is there such a thing a gesture wellformedness. According to these guys, there definitely is a way to do a gesture and a way that you don't do it. Listen to the comments for details :-)

Can I Learn How to Sign?

Here is a nice master's thesis by Chantal Mülders called 'Can I Learn How to Sign: Exploring aptitude for spoken language and visual stimuli in connection with sign language'. (Master of Arts, Radboud University Nijmegen, 2007). Usually these theses aren't published but since there is so little published on Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN) I offered her to publish it here. Download the full pdf (138 pages, 3.8 Mb) here

Summary: This thesis explores the relationship between linguistic and visual aptitude and sign language learning to see what abilities are necessary for sign language acquisition and whether these differ from spoken language acquisition. 29 Students enrolled in a Sign Language minor took four tests before the start of their practical sign language course: a Sound Discrimination test, a Sign Language test, a Shape Discrimination test and a Visual Spatial Discrimination test. The Sign Language test was constructed for this thesis and focused on phonological and phonetic alterations of handshape. The other tests originated from aptitude test batteries. After seven weeks of sign language instruction, the students took a proficiency test that tested their receptive and productive sign language skills. This proficiency test was constructed by the sign language teacher and was the student’s final exam for the course. 18 Students remained who had taken all five tests. Correlations between the four tests and the proficiency test show that the Sign Language test has a decent, but insignificant correlation with Reception. The Sound Discrimination test did not show a relationship and the Shape Discrimination test had a steady, but low and insignificant relationship. The Visual Spatial Discrimination test correlated negatively with Reception. This was the only significant correlation between the four tests and the proficiency test. It is likely that the subject group was not varied enough and all subjects performed above a certain critical level. I conclude that sign language learning appears to require different abilities from spoken language acquisition, but the current subject group is too small for a definite answer.

Chantal's spot on the web (in Dutch). Some believe even dogs can learn sign language ... (I disagree, they are learning hand signals, or gestures, but nothing beyond that)

Small Penis Gesture

In the news today: the Australian Roads and Traffic Agency (RTA) has launched a campaign to demotivate drivers from speeding: The video is good too. The RTA hopes this small gesture will have a bigger impact on young men than images of bloody car crash victims. I think it probably will.

A Band called Obscene Gesture

I just found out that there is a trashcore (?) band called Obscene Gesture. Don't they look all tough and mean? (source) And then that menacing gesture that is just 'disgusting to the senses', and/or 'repulsive by reason of crass disregard of moral or ethical principles'. These men-boys will have to watch out for the US laws on obscenity. A final note: should their music be considered one giant musical gesture?

Pallete, the Studiolab Surface

It seems a student in my own backyard has been working on a multi-touch surface computer. His name is Arjen Klinkenberg and he is graduating on this design and the tests he did on it. Participants in a usability test playing 'Airhockey' (source) Here is the invitation he sent around for his presentation, in case you happen to be in the neighbourhood of Delft University of Technology :-)

Dear All, Next week on wednesday I'm graduating on the design of a rich media tool for supporting conceptual design sessions. The result of this project is a gesture-based multi touch interactive table-top called Palette. With Palette multiple people can collect and generate design relevant content during conceptual design sessions by having direct control over the touchable media. I would like to invite you to my presentation which is on wednesday the 27th of june starting at 13:45h in room 4B-65/66 in the faculty [map]. Kind regards, Arjen Klinkenberg

Canned Signs or Gebarenblik

An Dutch company called RDG Kompagne sells software package Gebarenblik (Canned Signs) developed by Handicom, see their English product description. It is also sold by inTAAL. Their logo (left) seems rather elaborate to indicate a simplified sign system? It is an application to help the teaching and learning of Weerklankgebaren. This is a set of about 1000 signs (with images, pictograms and the like) which are quite similar to this Simplified Sign System from the US. You could buy a book (50-60 euro), but this software (135 euro) lets you create on-demand practice material, practice on the computer, and play a memory-game.

Tags: simplified signs, children, communication, development, software

[Mail] Translating the Form of a Gesture

Hamburg/Rotterdam - July/October 2006 (image source) Dear Jeroen, I assume that gestures have a content and a form. Do you think it is possible to translate only the structure (form) of a gesture, ignoring the meaning (content) of it? Is there a way to translate body language into body language, avoiding it´s message and being consequent with its space-time elements? Would be nice to know your answer. I love your site! Greetings, Monica Antezana

Tags: corresponce, Labanotation, dance

Cabinet and Blue Eyes

A colleague of mine called Ianus Keller, developed The Cabinet during his PhD work here at the TU Delft. It is a device to scan and digitally collect images for further usage in collages and the like. It has gesture recognition in the sense that you can use a stylus on the touchsensitive tabletop display to manipulate images and perform certain functions. Ever dreamed of being the world's premier digital collage building designer? (source) Inspired by his work a group at the TU Eindhoven recently made news headlines with Blue Eyes (pdf - video), their version of a Cabinet-like scanning and collecting device. They also use gestures to manipulate the images. You can even use both hands in certain gestures. The hands are tracked by the overhead camera, there is no touch-sensitive display involved it appears. I would think that a multi-touch solution would fit the design nicely as well. They use it to make mood boards. Do you know the difference between a collage and a mood board? (source)

Tags: gesture recognition, stylus, multi-touch, tabletop