Gesture control isn’t even a prolific technology yet, but competition is already getting fierce. German firm pmdtechnologies has been developing its gesture control design for the past 10 years and believes it has the technology to take on its better-known rivals. The product it demos in the video below is CamBoard pico – a device around the size of a thumb drive that the company claims is more accurate than competing devices.
CamBoard pico is a 3D depth sensor, which means it can identify gestures made within a “3D interaction volume,” giving the device the accuracy it needs. On the video’s YouTube post, the company says that using this technology means “you can move your hands freely, and [it can still] detect hands, fingertips, and gestures.” According to TechCrunch, pmdtechnologies claims the Pico is more accurate than Leap Motion, because the latter can only identify fingertips to measure spatial distance. The CamBoard Pico is an improved follow-up to the company’s earlier design, the CamBoard nano.
The company doesn’t have plans to release Pico on its own. It’s a reference design pmdtechnologies plans to sell to manufacturers. So in the future, you might see an assortment of cars, computers, or even robots with gesture control technology based on this teensy device.
