Interactive booth designed by Imagination for Shell at the Dubai Airshow.

If you look closely you can see a small black dot pointing out diagonally from the top of the white unit (centre-bottom). This is one of two infared cameras positioned on each side to create an invisible tracking area above. Finger movements are recognised like a ‘mouse’ or ‘pointer’, giving the user control over what happens onscreen as part of an interactive experience. Media content is back projected from the base via a series of mirrors onto a glass screen applied with a rear projection film.

The principle behind camera-enabled gesture-recognition technology has many other applications, here are just a few others:

• Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

This exhibit involved the creation of a series of floating transparent “heads up display” screens that allowed visitors to the museum to get additional information on a number of physical artifacts mounted onto a wall in front of the screens.

The visitor would simply point at an outline image of the artifact of interest and then be able to browse video, image, and text information on the artifact, its creator, other works, etc. The exhibit combined custom content with holographic screens and ceiling mounted projectors, custom built “flat-lite” frames, audio cones, and GestPoint tracking systems.

• Virtual Reality Experience to Promote Vancouver 2010 Olympics

New-media agency Xpletive utalised GestureTek’s 3D depth sensing technology and a curved panoramic projection dome to create a flight simulator through Canada’s province of British Columbia.

Users interact with the B.C. Explorer with simple, intuitive gestures and control the experience by tilting, rotating or making a fist with their hand. Pushing the hand forward makes users fly faster.  Tilting the hand sends users into a low flight pattern or a graceful arc across the sky.  Making a fist stops the flight so that users can explore points of interest by playing full screen HD movies on the main screen.

• Interactive retail experience for Nike’s tradeshow visitors.