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April 04, 2003

$Million Idea #347

Interface an optical sensor and a cable box so that we can change channels, adjust volume, etc., just by using hand gestures.

Drawback: Men all over the country will start misplacing their hands.

Posted by D. Weinberger at April 4, 2003 01:54 PM


Comments

And Italian households will never be able to watch more than a couple of milliseconds of each channel at a time.

Posted by: Gary Turner | April 5, 2003 12:31 PM


Eh, it feels unpleasantly narrow-band only-book-I've-ever-read Internet-cliché to pull out a quote from Mr Douglas Adams, but this bit from HHG has always stuck somewhere in my head:-

"The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive --- you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme."

Posted by: Kevan | April 7, 2003 09:25 AM


Activation/deactivation gestures!

Posted by: Richard Soderberg | April 20, 2003 07:27 PM


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