Last Hurrah for the Lost Remote
From: The Age - 07/18/2007
By: Stephen Hutcheon

People soon may be able to turn on their TVs, change channels, and turn up
the volume with hand gestures, if technology from researchers in Australia
continues to gain momentum. Dr. Prashan Premaratne, a lecturer at the
University of Wollongong's School of Electrical, Computer, and
Telecommunications Engineering, and a former student, Quang Nguyen, are
behind the technology, which could also be used to control video recorders,
set-top boxes, and even gaming applications. They have developed a working
prototype of the technology, and when connected to a TV and VCR it has shown
to be 100 percent accurate under normal lighting conditions and responsive to
hand gestures up to a distance of 10 meters, according to research published
in the Institution of Engineering and Technology's Computer Vision Research
Journal. The technology is designed to convert simple hand gestures, such as
a closed fist, an open palm, a thumbs up, or the "pistol" gesture into
electronic commands, and it makes use of a small camera to capture the image
of the gesture. The prototype then matches the image to a pre-defined
command, before providing a TV, VCR, or set top box with instructions for
what to do. Currently, the prototype can work with 10 gestures and two
consumer electronics devices, but its capabilities can be expanded. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/home-theatre/last-hurrah-for-the-lost-remote/2007/07/18/1184559833067.html

Links:
It’s thumbs up to new way of changing TV channels
http://media.uow.edu.au/news/UOW030638.html

Control Your Television with Hand Gestures
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/home_entertainment/index.html

Now, seven simple hand gestures to switch your TV on
http://internationalreporter.com/News-2402/Now,-seven-simple-hand-gestures-to-switch-your-TV-on.html

Prashan Premaratne
http://ghost.elec.uow.edu.au/staff/pp/

Tell Your TV to Talk to the Hand
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/07/tell-your-tv-to.html