Hand Movements and Gesture Recognition Technology

So much for sore index fingers and carpal tunnel syndrome - I suppose every mouse has its day as well.

Making 'Minority Report' computer navigation a reality: "The mouse has had a good run, but it's time to say good-bye," said John Underkoffler, the founder and chief scientist of Oblong Industries.

His company has an operating system, based on human hand gesturing, that enables the user to explore in a 3D plane. The system responds to the pitch, roll and yaw movements that come naturally to the hand and works with cameras that track the positions of targets placed on gloves.

One fascinating thing about this technology is that by using hand gestures instead of a mouse, all the normal chirokinesics interpretations come into play. (Chirokinesics is the study of hand movements and gestures.) Will this gesture recognition technology use the index finger excessively like the mouse does (excessive ego)? Or will it include natural hand movements that indicate a more positive individual expression? Time will tell...