Microsoft is working on a cheap gesture recognition system (UPD: + video)

The research unit of Microsoft Research in collaboration with the University of Washington announced its development of SoundWave user gesture recognition system, the functionality of which is to some extent similar to the well-known Kinect controller, but can only do with speakers and a laptop or desktop microphone.

The essence of the development is as follows: special software generates sound with a frequency of 20-22 KHz, and the microphone, in turn, analyzes the parameters of the sound wave, based on which the decision is made on the behavior of the user in front of the screen. So, for example, the fact that the frequency of sound has not changed means that the user, apparently, is sitting quietly at the computer; if the user makes a certain characteristic gesture, then the frequency of sound increases, and the system reacts in a certain way.

In general, a bank of patterns of changes in sound parameters in the specified range is used depending on various factors, such as the technical capabilities of the device, the user's position behind the screen, the speed of his movements, etc. It is also possible to teach the system those gestures that the user considers convenient for himself - so far, however, the system can only scroll through pages on a computer screen and turn it off if the user leaves; however, the operation of SoundWave does not interfere with the sound of other programs, for example, music players or watching videos.

Developersthe systems claim that the addition of special equipment - better and more sensitive speakers and microphones - can qualitatively improve the accuracy of the system, which already now amounts to 90% recognition of all user gestures; while there are no fundamental obstacles to using the system on tablets or smartphones.

SoundWave Video Demo:


To get acquainted with the report on the use of SoundWave, which will be presented at the conference ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems can be here .