When Tony Stark dazzled audiences by designing his Iron Man suit by simply picking up and chucking up holographic virtual gear in mid air instead of being hunched over a computer it was a perfect teaser into the future of gesture based computing. What’s even more exciting is that most of this technology is already available and is set to go mainstream. Gesture based computing is interacting with computers through non traditional interfaces using the body instead of the mouse and the keyboard.  It allows users to have no physical contact with a device and yet interact with it just as they would with traditional interfaces.

The most widely used of gesture based computing devices and already a huge commercial success is the Kinect. The accuracy of the Kinect was one of the important reasons for it’s success. Thanks to some amazing software that could extrapolate missing body parts and even tell different users apart it went on to become a hit among gamers looking for the next big thing to enhance their gaming experience.

The Kinect works by being able to map a body and produce a digital reproduction of a body’s shape, skeletal outline and even facial details that gives developers access to unlimited possibilities for interfaces and applications.

Kinect for Windows Retail Clothing Scenario

Leap motion

Another big contender in the gesture computing revolution is the Leap motion. The Leap motion is a small peripheral device that can be attached to any Windows or Mac computer through a USB port and comes with it’s own App Store. Leap motion takes gesture based computing to finger precision perfection. It reads gestures within a 8 cubic feet volume and any motion of the hand or fingers can be tracked to 1/100th of a millimeter heralding exciting possibilities about it’s use with applications that require a higher degree of accuracy.

The Leap motion in action

Gesture based computing is now ripe to be a part of gaming, TVs, devices, kiosks, medical, 3D sculpting, engineering, medical professionals, designers, advertisers and even people with physical disabilities.

Interactive live holography