Real-time motion capture engine in pipeline

Touchless gesturing may soon be a feature on devices powered by Texas Instruments' (TI) OMAP platform, thanks to a collaboration between the chip giant and Extreme Reality (XTR). The two companies hope to deliver a new technology they unveiled at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year that entails the creation of a touchless gesturing engine and gesturing application framework for mobile devices.

The technology uses a 2D camera such as those used for video conferencing on mobile phones to track and recognize human body gestures and control applications on mobile devices. XTR's real-time motion capture software engine running on the OMAP platform interprets the gestures and controls the device.

Users can employ single- or multiple-finger gestures to point, click, drag, scroll, zoom and rotate without touching the screen. The technology may be used to control a device while walking or driving or to control a device in a remote location.

TI has infused equity into XTR to boost their collaboration on the technology.

"Touchless gesturing is one of the 'must-have' applications for the next wave of mobile devices," Avner Goren, director of TI's OMAP platform strategy wireless business unit, said. "To that end, it's critical that TI choose the right partner who can leverage the power and performance of the OMAP platform with their expertise in order to make our vision a reality. XTR is that partner."