Apart from the intermittent bouts of carpal tunnel, we’re pretty happy with our mouse (Microsoft’s Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer, if you have to know), but Wired reports on a company called FingerWorks has an idea for eliminating all that repetitive strain: hand gestures.
FingerWorks sells two types of products. The iGesture pad is about the size of a standard mouse pad. The TouchStream keyboard functions like a regular keyboard, but also incorporates the same gesture-sensing technology, eliminating the need for a mouse. The gesturing interface works like this. To open a file, a user rotates a hand as if to open a jar. To close a file requires the opposite rotation. To cut a piece of text, pinch the fingers together, and to paste, flick the fingers outward. To zoom in, expand all five fingers, jazz-hands style. Contract the hand to zoom out.
The article doesn’t say what gesture the iGesture uses to send a file to the trash, but we’re betting that it’s something like flipping the bird. Or at least it should be.
