Acid mouse

A team in the

(ACID) led by Professor Duane Varan has developed what may be the world’s first television ‘mouse’, a clip-on device that enables the user to give commands to their TV with gestures.

“As television becomes more and more interactive, viewers want to have greater control over what we see and do with it. We want the ability to give it commands in straightforward ways, such as with voice or gestures,” Professor Varan explained.

ACID’s prototype gesture recognition device clips on the hand. It has accelerometers which measure the movement and orientation of the user’s hand in various directions, and a thumb-button to lock in the command.

Professor Varan predicts that, in time, it will replace remote buttons and arrow keys for record, stop, fast forward, menu and so on, with a series of gestures that are intuitive – like a hand up for stop, or palm-up for fast forward.