Ask HN: Seeking thoughts on a crazy/futuristic idea | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Seeking thoughts on a crazy/futuristic idea

4 pointsashishk4 comments

I saw a video the other day on the New York Tech Meetup's site. The speaker (couldnt find the name/video easily) was suggesting that in the future, we'll be using gestures to use computers instead of keyboard/mice.

This makes sense given recent developments (microsoft natal, and even to a degree, the iphone). And it is really exciting to think about, because there are so many applications.

Of course, there will be learning curve, and it might take 10-20 years for this to become mainstream. But it might make sense to start thinking of specific applications that early-adopters would use. (That's us right?). That got me thinking.

Would it be possible to code via gestures? There would probably be a huge amount of AI required, but it's interesting nonetheless to think about.

Would this be more efficient? Is it possible to do as a YC company? If so, I would love to see someone attack this.

My personal opinion: no.

Ideas like this (voice control as well) have been floating around for years, but I think they mainly appeal to the 'sci-fi movie' version of the future, and are not things that will achieve mass traction.

Flailing around with gestures would get tiring very fast - you could keep it up for 10 minutes, but try it for a few hours and see how you feel.

Maybe you wouldn't need to make such big gestures, waving your arms around and so - maybe just small motions of your hands and fingers would work. OK, but you might as well have some kind of a rest for your hands. Congratulations, you've just invented the mouse.

Really, outside of specialised applications (handicapped peoplem etc) I don't see this one taking off.

Although I do think that there are better alternatives to the keyboard and mouse out there in the sample space of all possible input devices, my honest opinion is that his kind of thing isn't really that innovative. I think projects like Dasher give a better sense of future directions in this area.

They have been used to a limited extent at least as far back as the apple Newton. In a sense drag and drop is gesture based. Sign language is gesture based. I dont think gestures will find much use in programming because of the lack of precision and limited vocabulary. I thought for a long time that voice would be used for programming, but I havent seen a single example beyond simple commands. Even that didnt catch on. I wouldnt bet my YC on it.

I would think that this would be more useful for someone searching a large database. But first we need better ways to visualize the data, only then does it make sense to use gestures (or so I would think).

No ideas on how to do that either though...

It might be strenuous to lift one's hands all the time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com