Microsoft's Digits motion: Dance and Talk with Hands

By Bushra Sabir
Technology Correspondent, SAM Daily Times

Microsoft's Digits motion control prototype could lead to an era of computing with gestures rather than a clunky old keyboard and mouse. "This is the future of communications, the future of entertainment, and it is the next generation of collaboration," said futurist James Canton. The long-lived and usually reliable mouse could soon be put out to pasture, as Microsoft unveiled this week a new hand-gesture sensor that could allow users to point with their fingers rather than a cursor. The new Digits prototype is part of an effort to create a mobile device that could transform interaction with a computer interface. This wrist-worn sensor would allow the wearer to control a range of equipment via hand gestures, which could allow it to be an interface beyond the computer screen. Microsoft has been looking at motion control, which has already been adapted for its Kinect for the Xbox 360 game console, as offering an alternative to pressing buttons on a device.