The gaming world has been revolutionized by games that track a
player's natural body movements and translates them into the virtual
environment. By using gesture and voice recognition, gaming consoles
such as the Xbox Kinect allow players to kick a ball, shoot an arrow,
and actively participate in the game by simply moving their bodies, no
controller required.
Watch out manufacturing, the revolution is
coming. Very soon, factory floors may start seeing gesture and voice
recognition systems, combined with biometrics, which allow workers to
control factory operations with natural body movements and voiced
commands. A simple example of this, according to a Machine Design.com
article, involves logging into workstations.
Currently, many
automated factories operate off of Graphic User Interfaces (GUI's),
where a worker would log in by clicking on an icon and entering a
username and password. In the future, the same worker could simply step
up to the work station, which would scan his retina and automatically
log him in. With a simple gesture the worker could command the computer
to start operations, and by holding up his hand in a "stop" gesture,
halt operations. The machine could be programmed to ask for
confirmations of these gestures, requiring a vocal "yes" from the
operator.
So how does this technology work? A color video camera
works with a depth sensor that provides a 3D perspective and a set of
microphones which isolates individual player's voices. Advanced software
tracks the layout of the room and player movement, monitoring movements
and responding accordingly.
A biometric natural user interface
(NUI) would be able to identify only the person logged into that
particular machine, responding singularly to that person's gestures and
movements while ignoring all other workers. Should a worker leave a
workstation, it would not respond to anyone else and can even be
programmed to shut down after a specified period of time.
