Kudos to Gizmodo for the heads-up on a just-published, very informative video by Computerphile, shown above. It captures an interview with several researchers from Nottingham Trent University's Interactive Systems Research Group in the United Kingdom. With clinical medical applications (such as use by stroke victims) in mind, they've developed a prototype gesture interface system that leverages a "glove", a Wiimote, and several open-source and free software packages.
As review, the Nintendo Wii's object-tracking approach is "backwards" in comparison to that used by the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, both of which leverage console-located cameras. With the Wii, in contrast, the console is in close proximity to a multi-LED infrared transmitter, whose emissions are sensed by an infrared receiver within the Wiimote game controller held by the user. The Wiimote subsequently transmits data back to the console over Bluetooth, where it's transformed into the user's 3-D location coordinates.
The Nottingham Trent University researchers leveraged Nintendo's approach by developing a glove, comprised of a LED transmitter for each finger, in conjunction with a Wiimote mounted near the computer and (once again) transmitting data to the computer over Bluetooth. They admit that the glove-based approach is non-ideal for aesthetic, sanitary, and other reasons, and as such they offer some interesting perspectives on alternative depth-sensing approaches such as structured light and time-of-flight (including expressing great enthusiasm for the upcoming "Kinect 2" time-of-flight camera for the Xbox One). They also offer informative insights into implementation issues they encountered and surmounted, such as the interference caused by normal ambient infrared light.
