IFA 2007: Toshiba developing gesture recognition for HD DVD

Hands on with the laptop that recognises hand signals

31 August 2007 19:01 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

At the IFA 2007 exhibition we had a quick hands-on with Toshiba's prototype gesture recognition technology.

Nintendo and Sony Ericsson clearly aren't the only ones getting involved in motion sensing madness, as Toshiba has developed a system for your laptop that recognises gestures.

Demoed on a Qosmio laptop, the system can recognise hand movements and convert them into commands for the built-in HD DVD player.

The controls work through the laptop's cam, with an in-picture image of you displayed on the demo laptop.

With a flat palm you can pause the video, whereas your fist, picked up by the camera and is shown in a small box where you then gesture "touch" the fast forward, rewind, etc, options on screen.

It worked fine in the demo we had, although whether this exact version of the technology would work in the real world is a matter of opinion.

What is exciting is that Toshiba is working on such a system, that would presumably be available eventually on stand-alone DVD players.