gesture recognition

gesture recognition

(1) Computer recognition of handwritten check marks, slashes and other shorthand symbols as commands and annotations.

(2) Swiping a touchscreen with a finger or stylus. Definition #3 below is the common meaning of the term; however, swiping with one finger, and motions such as pinching with two fingers, also fall under the programming category of gesture recognition. See swipe and multitouch.

(3) Identifying hand and body movements. In 1998, Toshiba introduced a device that used infrared light reflected from a user's hand to sense its motion. More than a decade later in 2010, this capability was employed in Microsoft's Kinect controller for its Xbox, and motion control products have debuted ever since. See Kinect.

Pretend It's in Your Hand
The Leap Motion controller lets people play games and musical instruments, create objects and explore the world with dozens of Windows and Mac gesture-based apps from the Airspace online store. (Image courtesy of Leap Motion, Inc., www.leapmotion.com)