Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 12:01 AM PT

 

Show of Hands: Gestures Control Hitachi TV

Fighting over the remote could get a lot more brutal in the years to come. At CES today, Hitachi is showing off its gesture-based television. That’s right, you use your hands — no remote required. But will this tech — essentially cameras installed in TV that monitor your moves — scare people off?

Here’s a video demo of the Hitachi TV in action from a Japanese trade show last fall:

Two companies were influential in the creation of Hitachi’s gesture-controlled TV. Canesta provided the single-chip-based 3-D sensors, and GestureTek created the software.

Hitachi’s TVs will have Canesta’s sensors built into them, looking out at the room, collecting a 3-D image of everything it sees. Having this depth of field is key to getting the gesture technology to work, as a 2-D sensor might not be able to tell the difference between your real hand and one printed on your T-shirt. This detailed 3-D look allows the Canesta chip allows the TV to see when you stick out your hand to control the TV. It also is able to recognize different people in the room.

But recognizing you is only half of the equation. The fittingly-named GestureTek provides the software that translates those gestures to control the TV. According to Gesturetek, the movements have to be simple enough that anyone can do them, and they need to be consistent across devices so people don’t have to make a mental leap switching from, say, an iPhone to their TV — and the gestures need to be culturally sensitive. (Evidently a wave in China is different than other parts of the world). There are also alternative methods for controlling the TV, in case people are physically prevented from doing so.

For the Hitachi set, a users wave their hand to bring up the control bar, spin their wrist to activate a scroll wheel, swipe left and right to move through options, and use two hands to switch to a different function (check out the video demo, embedded above, to see for yourself).

At NewTeeVee Live last November, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings waxed on about the coming wave of gesture remotes that will control our entertainment. The concept isn’t new. Nintendo uses them for the Wii, and Hillcrest Labs (which is suing Nintendo) has developed motion-controlled TV remotes as well. But Hitachi’s set gets rid of the remote altogether. (I guess instead of “hands-free” you’d call it “hands-up”?)

According to GestureTek, sensors in the TV will also be able to recognize different members of the family, and bring up content associated with that person. While that may be a timesaver, it made me think of a story we did last year on Comcast experimenting with similar technology. The resulting avalanche of comments we got made it pretty clear that users didn’t want the cameras in the cable box watching them back. GestureTek said that, at first, it used a normal web cam to track movements, but Hitachi felt that people’s fears would make it not viable. The current sensor technology can tell people in a small group apart, but not pick one out person from millions of people.

The price and availability of the gesture-controlled Hitachi haven’t been revealed yet. But raise your hand if you want one.

Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the feed

Related Posts

Powered by Sphere

Sphere
Topic: Hardware, Hitlines
« Previous Post Next Post »

Comments & Trackbacks

  1. Wow !

    On the long term, should it be better for Earth to have a camera in the TV than a remote with batteries to change sometimes ?

    Pierre Col on January 8th, 2009 at 6:19 am - Permalink

  2. I want to know if you give it the middle finger it will recognize you don’t like that show ? :p

    Matt on January 8th, 2009 at 6:41 am - Permalink

  3. Sounds and looks awesome to me they would sell quick here in the U.S. were a lazy country and the price of batterys are getting exspensive for remotes. I would buy 8 of em 1 for every room in my house 6 br family room and kitchen

    Mark Iles Jr. (US) on January 10th, 2009 at 12:17 am - Permalink

  4. [...] you could dump a remote altogether and just wave your hands. That’s what a new Hitachi set does. Using a combination of technologies from chip company Canesta and aptly-named [...]

    TVs Transform at This Year’s CES « NewTeeVee on January 11th, 2009 at 9:01 pm - Permalink

  5. [...] last year. Or, you could dump a remote altogether and just wave your hands. That’s what a new Hitachi set does. Using a combination of technologies from chip company Canesta and aptly named [...]

    TVs Transform at 2009 CES « My Blog on January 12th, 2009 at 2:40 am - Permalink

  6. [...] you could dump a remote altogether and just wave your hands. That’s what a new Hitachi set does. Using a combination of technologies from chip company Canesta and aptly-named [...]

    TVs Transform at This Year’s CES | Viral Video Maker on January 12th, 2009 at 7:30 am - Permalink

  7. [...] in set-top boxes that could “see” who was in the room watching TV, and the upcoming gesture-controlled televisions from Hitatchi has similar sensors that create a 3D map of your room (and people in it) to recognize [...]

    Tinfoil Hats! All the DTV Conspiracies Fit to Print « NewTeeVee on February 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm - Permalink

  8. [...] in set-top boxes that could “see” who was in the room watching TV, and the upcoming gesture-controlled televisions from Hitatchi have similar sensors, ones that create a 3D map of your room (and people in it) to [...]

    Tinfoil Hats! All the DTV Conspiracies Fit to Print | Viral Video Maker on February 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm - Permalink

  9. Put this to be with an interactive TV where the scenes are changes by hand motions … porn will make another leap in technology!

    Rich on February 23rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm - Permalink

  10. What is the price of this tv? Do you install?

    Michael Ploussard on February 23rd, 2009 at 7:31 pm - Permalink

  11. [...] someday use to change the channel on your television set. Today we sat down with Canesta (previous coverage), a company that develops 3D sensors that allow consumer electronics devices to “see,” [...]

    Canesta Demos Gesture-Controlled TV « NewTeeVee on March 12th, 2009 at 8:01 am - Permalink

  12. [...] you’ve got hands to change the channel and adjust the volume. We’ve been following this gesture-controlled TV trend for a while and recently sat down with Softkinetic to get a demo of their [...]

    Hands On with Softkinetic’s Hands-Controlled TV on March 24th, 2009 at 10:12 pm - Permalink

  13. [...] Show of Hands Gestures Control Hitachi TV Posted by root 1 hour 40 minutes ago (http://newteevee.com) Here a video demo of the hitachi tv in action from a japanese trade show last fall if your comment doesn 39 t show up immediately it may have gotten caught marketing consulting by acs idg technetwork middot powered by wordpress com Discuss  |  Bury |  News | Show of Hands Gestures Control Hitachi TV [...]

    Show of Hands Gestures Control Hitachi TV | Wood TV Stand on May 31st, 2009 at 4:05 pm - Permalink

  14. [...] moves touch on many of the trends we follow here at NTV: social TV, on-demand video, and gesture controls, and with Xbox Live’s 20 million users, it pushes all of them more into the [...]

    Xbox Live Gets Social With Twitter and Facebook on June 1st, 2009 at 12:45 pm - Permalink

  15. [...] phones); TVs are becoming social with the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter; and heck, we may not even need remote controls any [...]

    A Tale of Two Parties: Games Get Glitz While TV Tones Down on June 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm - Permalink

  16. [...] need a Wii-mote or a Loop? Removing all handheld accoutrement is exactly what companies like GestureTek, Softkinetic and Canesta are working on. Raising your hands and orchestrating a series of [...]

    What the Wii Hath Wrought: The Gesture-Control Space Heats Up on June 16th, 2009 at 9:01 pm - Permalink

Leave a reply








Safari hates me

If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it may have gotten caught in our trusty (but occasionally overly ambitious) spam filter. Please drop us a note and we'll retrieve it.