The New TV Remote: Your Bare Hand?

CNET Looks At Next Generation TVs And Remotes

(CNET)  This story was written by CNET's Erica Ogg.

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The TV remote control of the future isn't an expensive device with an LCD screen and blinking lights. It's your hand.

The classic TV remote control most of us have grown up with has been around in essentially the same incarnation for half a century. It's been tweaked over the years, but now one company is looking at ditching the remote altogether and using a camera mounted below a TV screen that senses hand motions instead of button pushes. The result is something that seems right out of Minority Report.

But the high-tech user interface Tom Cruise coolly manipulates onscreen isn't even all that far-fetched now, thanks to incremental improvements. Until now, the most innovative new input for entertainment in the living room has been the
Wii-mote, the motion-sensing remote control/wand that has made Nintendo's game console a cultural phenomenon. Swing it like a tennis racket and you can pretend you're playing tennis, point it at the screen and use it like a mouse to navigate menus.

Televisions have progressed as well, with better picture quality and capability. Now TVs can record TV shows, stream Netflix movies, check the weather, read news headlines, and skim RSS feeds. The menus on those TVs appear more and more like what we see on our computer screens, so a new interface that operates more like a mouse seems almost inevitable.

"The variety of information and programming on television is certainly stretching the limits of the four-way control pad, so manufacturers are...seeing a lot of complexity start to creep in," noted Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for The NPD Group. As a result, TV manufacturers are trying new things, like putting new software inside remote controls or experimenting with new user interfaces onscreen.

At least one major TV manufacturer has been actively looking at how to bring a remote-less TV into the mainstream. Hitachi approached Silicon Valley-based GestureTek about using its software with a depth camera to track movement and translate it into onscreen commands. It's still just a prototype, but Hitachi demonstrated it at Ceatec last year and at CES in January.

It works like this: The camera is affixed somewhere below the screen, and locks on to one hand of a person standing in front of it, picking up predetermined gestures (waving to the side will navigate left or right, lingering over a certain spot is the equivalent of clicking with a mouse). The software tells the camera to ignore extraneous movements or other people's hands, should they come into the view of the camera--thus fighting over the remote control will take on a whole new meaning.

The camera is a depth camera, which means it senses movement that is horizontal, vertical, toward, and away from it. The gestures can be tuned to page through menus and select letters to search show titles. But the actual capabilities will be determined by each TV manufacturer, who would decide how such an interface would work on their TV.

GestureTek has been around for two decades, and has been making motion-control software for nearly that long. The software has been used in games for cell phones in Japan, as well as add-on devices to game consoles, like the EyeToy for Sony's PlayStation and the Webcam for the Xbox 360.

The company says that gesture-based controls are the ultimate solution for entertainment in the living room--no more hunting for the remote that has once again lodged itself between sofa cushions, or remembering which drawer you put the game controller in.

But besides that, this could be yet another way besides extras like onscreen widgets or Netflix-streaming capability that TV makers can add to bump up the price of some LCD or plasma. Having a motion-sensing TV is a more tangible way to stand out from other brands on the shelf beyond slight improvements in contrast resolution and refresh rates, noted Rubin.

TV makers "need to be conscious of bottom line, but in the time period before we have the next picture-quality breakthrough in OLED, there's a scramble to add things to the television experience that manufacturers have been reluctant to add before," he said. "The industry is looking beyond low-hanging fruit to attract new buyers, particularly at the high end."

The remoteless TV, when it does eventually hit stores, will almost certainly be available only on premium sets.

"The gating factor right now is the cost of the depth cameras," William Leckonby, CEO of GestureTek, said recently in an interview.

Depth cameras cost 10 to 20 times more than a Webcam today, but they can do things Web cams can't, like taking out background movement. But that price difference "won't be an issue" in the next 18 months, Leckonby says. There are a handful of companies working to get the cost of each camera down to about $50 each, which Leckonby hopes will push not only TV manufacturers, but also set-top box and other entertainment device makers to include his technology in their devices.

Leckonby says all the major TV manufacturers are at least thinking about incorporating motion control abilities into their products, and even some PC makers.

Problems can be expected, of course, when a device requires a whole new way of interacting. Though pointing and hand gestures are fairly basic human functions, pantomiming in front of a TV set may be difficult or just undesirable for some consumers. Simplicity will be key. If they can't learn it quickly on the show floor at Best Buy or within the first day the TV is brought home, the technology may never take off widely, as Rubin points out: "A new form of consumer behavior as people sit in front of TV sets is always challenging to create in a relatively short amount of time."

[rf35]

The New TV Remote: Your Bare Hand?

No, my bear hand. I'm going to build a remote into a preserved bear paw. Anyone want to invest? Could be the next big thing in remotes.

[barbaram99]

Maybe yer wife will change the bloody channel on them dumb football games or better yet ye each have yer own TV as we do.

[rational_1]

This is great - I have bigger hands than my wife so the thing will have to listen to me. No more Lifetime for Women.... bwahahahahah

[Slrman]

While this idea has merit, until it is brought to the point where it works from across the room instead of right in front of the screen, it;s a no-go. Who stands right in front of the screen? I know, your two-year old. So your TV choices will be Barny and more Barny.

[rf35]

I've played around with a "gyro-mouse" a few times. This seems like an easier option to make interacting with your TV more like interacting with a computer. A g-mouse with a number pad and a couple extra buttons for certain functions, or a virtual remote on-screen that you use a more standard g-mouse to control. A scroll wheel for channel surfing and there you go. I don't think I'll be looking to get a device that requires me to gesticulate like an imbecile to operate.

[barbaram99]

This is dumb. I use the remote. I 'member a day years ago where ye got up changed the channel by hand..The dial. I use the mouse to change channels on the computer. Them touch displays don't work for me and I would not use them as they are not legally blind friendly. nOT THE HAND. Mum never ever allowed us to touch the TV glass.. She cleaned it and years ago paws off it. I don't allow the touching of the srceen on the TV/computer. Paws off. Use the mouse and with TV the remote. No hands.

[incog-nito]

In other news, scientists are researching ways for people to change the TV channel by the power of thought alone. "Lifting their fingers is becoming too taxing for Americans," one of them told reporters.

[jchildsplay]

How bad will it be when you still cannot find anything to watch on TV and you have to move you whole arm and be sitting right in front of the TV. The battle then will be who can sit out of the cameras view so they do not have to change channels. Can you imagine going through 60 channels having to wave your hand the whole time? Try it now towrd you screen. How far did you get till you gave up? I guess there will be less commercial jumping and more people will end up watching Jerry Springer. Maybe the infomercials and such are the ones pushing this. If I want to wiggle while in front of my TV... I will buy a Wii.

[incog-nito]

Next, researchers are looking for ways to use this new technology to allow one person to slap another from across the room.

[actornaught]

My dad was way ahead of this technology. He changed TV channels in the '60's by pointing and waving his hand... at me...