USC Researchers Demonstrate Real-Life Gmail Motion

An anonymous reader writes "In this tongue-in-cheek video, researchers at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies take playful jabs at Google as they demonstrate their software controlling Gmail with a Microsoft Kinect sensor. The gesture controls are strikingly similar to those jokingly suggested by Google in their fictional Gmail Motion application, posted as an April Fools' day prank. The researchers have made their software available for free on their website."

Re:

[m.ducharme]

[Droopy Dog Voice] Yes. [/Droopy Dog Voice]

Who didn't see this coming?

[devincook]

Seriously... anytime anyone posts a good idea (even slightly outlandish) on the internet with no implementation, it gets implemented. How awesome would a combination hooker and blackjack machine be? Have at it, internet.

Re:

[Fuzzums]

...that brings cold beer.

Re:

[orkysoft]

In fact, forget about the hooker and blackjack!

Re:

[Fuzzums]

Walk-ing fridge : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOvoO6eQDms [youtube.com]

Re:

[orkysoft]

Men With Talent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58-9Ae9cvDI [youtube.com], for the furriners :-)

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I was surprised Google themselves didn't do this. Remember: always take your jokes to the next level.

Re:

[JustOK]

that's what SHE said.

Re:Who didn't see this coming?

[Ihmhi]

It's great, isn't it? It's speech recognition software for people who use sign language.

Re:

[anton_kg]

The really cool thing is that there is only one sign language. May be we should all learn it and it won't be any language barrier anymore. If you know what I mean. Then we would need a software which would convert all languages to one - sing language.

Potential

[gmuslera]

If well could be risky to use that in normal environments (like with voice commands, the computer have no way to tell that what you did or said was for it or for someone else in reach), have some potential for not so normal environments or uses. And that it is flexible enough to emulate gmail joke in little time mean that it could be ready for special uses.

Congratulations to the USC Team

[jacksonyee]

After the tragedy/comedy combination that was April Fool's Day, it's nice to see someone taking a joke and turning it into someone useful. As a poster mentioned earlier yesterday, it would be quite nice to give Outlook the finger and have a sad face or a pouting puppy popup on your computer. That would take a large amount of the users' and tech support's rage out.

I am by no means in favor of a Minority Report-style interface for everyday computing, but it would be useful in certain situations. To release th

Dancing Easter Egg

[daboochmeister]

I hear if you do a whole zumba routine in front of it, it emails a death threat to Jillian Michaels.

Text entry

[qvatch]

Text entry should be semaphore. It would be most fitting.