The Gesture Interface: Its Near-Quarter-Century Old Potential Birthplace

Not to take anything away from Nintendo, who created a game console user interface mainstream breakthrough with the Wii Remote, but the company's products to at least some degree stood on the shoulders of forebears. As evidence, check out the above video, which The Verge published earlier this month. The system is called Frox, and the person demonstrating it is well-known software engineer Andy Hertzfeld, who gained initial fame at Apple.

I can't find any information online on how the wireless "wand" controller communicates with the remainder of the system; if anyone out there knows, please post a comment. And to be honest, I'm not sure how well (if at all) the "wand" even works; look closely, and you'll see that Hertzfeld relied on a tethered mouse for the majority (and maybe even the entirety) of the demo. Nonetheless, the Wii Remote heritage expressed in Frox is clear. Now can anyone out there find me a forerunner of the Microsoft Kinect?

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