Microsoft shows off its vision for gesture-controlled PCs

The last thing I want to be doing at work is waving my hands around to make things happen. I wish the clown at MS who thought Minority Report was "cool and neat" gets canned soon.

Keyboard shortcuts are already simple to do and fast enough, what is the point in them even making this, just another money sink imo.

Still, no contenders to the good ol' mouse.

Instead of trying to improve on the mouse and keyboard via the use of exaggerated hand movements, I'd prefer they perfect voice response so it would be truly useful.

woody345 said:

The last thing I want to be doing at work is waving my hands around to make things happen. I wish the clown at MS who thought Minority Report was "cool and neat" gets canned soon.

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Why is it that whenever people see these demos they immediately assume Microsoft is going to throw away the keyboard and mouse and replace it with something like this. The point is completely flying over your head.

This is research. It's about developing new alternative input, to complement traditional input. No, you don't want to wave your hands around all the time when using a computer, but you might when you're using a Home Theater PC from across a room. Or, more importantly, this is just a step on the journey to a more advanced form of interaction.

Think about Tony Stark interacting with 3D holographic CAD/CAM. You need this technology to get to that technology eventually, as it's just one piece of it.

You mentioned Minority Report.. but you seem to have forgotten.. they had keyboards and mice too, when they wanted to use them.

Guess I didn't see it this way but rather how it pertains to me personally. Voice commands would go hand-in-hand with this.

Mystere said:

woody345 said:

The last thing I want to be doing at work is waving my hands around to make things happen. I wish the clown at MS who thought Minority Report was "cool and neat" gets canned soon.

Click to expand...

Why is it that whenever people see these demos they immediately assume Microsoft is going to throw away the keyboard and mouse and replace it with something like this. The point is completely flying over your head.

This is research. It's about developing new alternative input, to complement traditional input. No, you don't want to wave your hands around all the time when using a computer, but you might when you're using a Home Theater PC from across a room. Or, more importantly, this is just a step on the journey to a more advanced form of interaction.

Think about Tony Stark interacting with 3D holographic CAD/CAM. You need this technology to get to that technology eventually, as it's just one piece of it.

You mentioned Minority Report.. but you seem to have forgotten.. they had keyboards and mice too, when they wanted to use them.

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nenad285 said:

Guess I didn't see it this way but rather how it pertains to me personally. Voice commands would go hand-in-hand with this.

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Voice input technology has large plateaued. The problem is that people just don't speak clearly or reliably. Humans can't even understand other humans much of the time. How do you expect computers to?

There are too many problems that have to be solved for voice commands to continue moving forward. Noise cancelation issues, speech impediment issues, command confidence..

The most annoying thing about voice commands is that you either have to live with mistakes, some of which may be able to be corrected while others may not.. or live with constant confirmations... "Confirm you meant to delete your foot". Gestures have a much higher confidence level and have fewer issues relating to them. Another area being researched is body language. The computer may literally be able to know what you're thinking by watching you without any overt movement on your part. These problems are much simpler than the problems around voice.

Good point.

Plus, the gesture stuff has huge applications in Video Games, Simulations (military and otherwise), Healthcare (disabled people can make gestures, but they may not be able to type or speak).

Regardless of whether or not you think this particular application is useful, Microsoft seems to think it will pay off in some way or another.. There is seldom a thing as useless research, as even research that is not commercially viable often leads to other research that may lead to other research that eventually is.

Another way to look at this is when working with the hearing impaired.

MS seemed to think RT would pay off also. How did that work out for them? Just because MS see's something in it doesn't mean anyone else will.

Hi there
Sometimes people need to get a bit of reality about them - can you imagine this type of nonsense working on a PLANE !! also imagine an office -- I've got a decent space but the more offices I visit people seem to be crammed in more and more having less space than ever before - who ever invented that dreadful conception of "Open Plan" offices -- deadly combination of "Mobile Phone" in cramped office -- people are inconsiderate enough when using mobiles today in any case , having to bear them in in cramped offices is just pure PURGATORY - loud pings every 19 secs when texts arrive, answering phone or making incessant calls with a voice that would put an army DRILL SGT to shame etc - gesture motions in these places would just be REDICULOUS too - people would get oblivious to their neighbours - your coffee / computer / monitor etc would probably just get knocked to the ground by some bozo gesturing around while at the same time yelling away on a mobile phone.

For people with mobility impairments this could be a good idea - but unleash on general public -- NO THANKS !!.

Cheers
jimbo

Mystere said:

Why is it that whenever people see these demos they immediately assume Microsoft is going to throw away the keyboard and mouse and replace it with something like this.

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Uh.... windows 8...???

That's weird, I was just shaking my can of compressed air to clean my keyboard and all these porn sites opened up in IE, all by them selves. What's up with that?

The dangers of Internet Explorer!

alphanumeric said:

That's weird, I was just shaking my can of compressed air to clean my keyboard and all these porn sites opened up in IE, all by them selves. What's up with that?

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since people refuse to buy the Metro touch-based OS for their PCs, they now ram voice and motion control into out thorats?

I already can envision an office with professionals (engineers, accountants, graphics designers etc.) with everyoen talking adn waiving aroudn trying to enter numbers. Every voice-device isn't able to recognize my voice and gives me jibberish s far. I'm sure the IRS will appareciate the accuracy of my taxes when I enter them with my voice.

Touch is fine for small mobile devices. but you imagine peole on the bus or in public gesturing and talking to their device?

I have no interest whatsoever in touch-screens on PCs, and will not own one.

And I have even less interest in this 'gesture' rubbish!

I wouldn't even consider purchasing.


Wenda.

DooRules said:

MS seemed to think RT would pay off also. How did that work out for them? Just because MS see's something in it doesn't mean anyone else will.

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As I said. Microsoft released Windows NT in 1993. It did not become commercially successful until Windows 2000 for the server and XP on the desktop. That was 7-8 years. Microsoft is no stranger to introducing a technology and allowing it to evolve to the point where it becomes successful.

RT will pay off, both in the mobile market as well as the server market. There are new ARM based server blade clusters from both HP and Dell that draw 15W or less per blade (which is a huge datacenter cost savings) and the plan is to have a server version of RT as their OS, though I wouldn't expect this until Windows 9 timeframe.

wow cant wait for it in the philippines. it so cool
if that will release in the philippines i think it costs a lot of money