Technology turns household objects into TV remotes

Matchpoint motion recognition technology allows users to turn surrounding objects or body parts into a TV remote.

Matchpoint technology is expected to be introduced at the UIST2017 conference in Canada next month. Photo: New Scientist

Scientists at Lancaster University in the UK are developing a new technology that allows us to use surrounding objects or parts of our bodies as a TV remote, News Scientist reported on October 1. The technology, called Matchpoint, is equipped with a special webcam that can recognize surrounding movements and translate them into corresponding TV control commands.

The installation and setup steps are also very simple. When the Matchpoint technology is connected to the TV, the screen will display various function icons such as changing channels or increasing and decreasing the volume.

To select the desired function, the user simply draws in the air a shape corresponding to the function icon on the screen, to activate that function into remote control mode, for example, draw a circle to activate the volume up and down function, or draw a square to open the channel switching function.

At that time, the Matchpoint system will recognize the surrounding movement and convert it into corresponding control commands. For example, when activating the volume up and down function, a volume up and down slider will appear on the screen, we just need to shake the teacup to the left or right, matching the direction of the slider to increase or decrease the volume as desired.

However, one question that has been raised is whether unwanted movements of the body or surrounding objects could affect the operation of the motion recognition system. Dr Christopher Clarke of Lancaster University, who is leading the project, said he and his colleagues took this into account when developing the Matchpoint technology.

Specifically, the system allows users to hide the remote control function by motion when desired. In addition, to reactivate the function or switch to another function, users need to draw shapes corresponding to that function icon such as circle, square. Therefore, unwanted movements are very difficult to affect the operation of the Matchpoint system.

Clark and his team say they will continue to add more functionality beyond volume and channel switching. The Matchpoint technology is expected to be introduced at the UIST2017 conference in Quebec City, Canada in November./.

According to VNE