April 5, 2011
A gag from Google's cavalcade of April Fools' Day hilarity is now a reality — Google Motion. Members of the ICT MxR Lab at the University of Southern California — apparently with some time on their hands — hacked Microsoft Kinect's motion-sensing technology to create a prototype that allows users to send and receive email without touching the keyboard. "No offense to the geniuses at Google, but we weren't able to get their action running on our computers," postdoctoral researcher Evan Suma says at the opening of ICT MxRLab's video demonstration. "So we came up with our own middleware solution." (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC
Universal.)
These are the same guys who hacked Kinect last year to play World of Warcraft in full-body mode. The lab's new prototype riffs on the Gmail Motion prank introduced on April 1st, complete with a video demonstration with interviews with "experts" in the fields of "paralanguage" and "movement," accompanied by this description:
Gmail Motion uses your computer's built-in webcam and Google's patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands. Movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels.
Along with precautions advising Gmail Motion users to clear the area, take short breaks every 30-40 minutes and stretch after each email session, the prank landing page includes a delightful chart of sample gestures that you can (and totally should) print out. Like semaphore sans flags, the guide includes everything from compose, star message and report spam. Also offered, common phrases such as "Hello," "P.S." and "If you're leaving for Buenos Aires next week ..."
ICT MxRLab's homage to Gmail Motion doesn't seem as sophisticated, but at least it works ... unlike this:
