Yesterday I journeyed down to a place called Gesture Tek. It is located downtown Toronto. As ventured up to the 7th floor and into their offices I noticed the professionalism of the company. To get to the show floor you must go through the main office area which is filled with white cubicles. Upon entering the show floor you notice a lot of large screens spread though out the area. Located on the ceiling are large projectors projecting the images onto the screens. Vincent John Vincent is the President and Co-Founder of GestureTek Inc™. He was kind enough to be our host for the class tour.
My first impressions of the place were positive. At first I thought the technology would be out dated because it has been around since 1986 when they started the company. People have been experimenting with that stuff for while. I could easily see how Gesture Tek as been a pioneer in the field since the beginning. They have a lot of patents based on motion technology. They have been able to adapt by adopted new technologies like flash into new concepts.
They continue to advance in the field and break new ground. One of their new products is using cell phone camera technology and creating games and applications with it. They use the camera to detect motion. With that the user is able to move the phone and the character on the screen will move based on tilt. They also have a map application where the user tilts the phone to easier navigate through a virtual map. They have been able to get the major phone distributer in Japan to incorporate it into all their cell phone product lines.
For me as a multimedia pioneer they have set a great example of what it is to be a true pioneer in multimedia. They way they have created a new interactive medium with motion and video. And are able to capitalize on the idea and incorporate other new technologies as they come along. They are even letting our class use some of their software to create some flash based applications.
Another product of theirs is their portal motion detector. It uses 2 cameras to create a virtual matrix to figure out a person hand location x and y coordinates. It then uses a projector that displays the image on a screen you to interact without needing a mouse. They have sold these in museums and trade shows.
You can see from their many prototypes that they have enhanced their products. From a large room with cameras to detect motion till portable machines that do the same. They also have this interactive table where you can play pong on it and other activities. It is able to detect multiple points of detection at the same time so more the one person can use it. Gesture Tek definitely gives you the feel of what the process is like to invent something.
--Links--
Here are some interesting links that relate gesture technology and Gesture Tek.
The Nintendo wii using its wii fit board to detect motion for fitness training. http://wii.ign.com/articles/804/804113p1.html
The Sony Playstation uses its eye toy game to detect motion. A technology Gesture Tec help developed for them. http://ps2.ign.com/objects/715/715377.html
Gesture Tec primary website.http://gesturetek.com/
A Link about why we need gesture technology.
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