ABSTRACT
When the lm rst debuted, a technology such as this was novel-it had never been seen before and existed only in the imaginations of scientists. Telling a computer what you wanted it to do without a keyboard or a mouse! Like much of the other technologies highlighted in the lm, such a thing seemed possible only in science ction (emphasis on “ction”). But fast-forward to today, and such a technology seems less impossible. Most personal computers have a built-in camera that, although typically used specically for teleconferencing, could be used for giving spatialrecognition-based instructions in the near future. Many gaming systems now incorporate cameras that can follow what the user is physically doing, giving the user the ability to use his or her own body parts to instruct the
system rather than using a keyboard or a handheld controller (this feature is especially popular in sports and dancing-themed videogames). We see a version of the Minority Report software used in many TV shows. Even if personal computers are not yet capable of easily mimicking the spatial recognition shown in Minority Report, the use of a keyboard and mouse is no longer required for many devices-computers can now have touchbased screens so that users need only to touch the computer screen to give commands such as opening or closing programs. Touch-screen interfaces are especially prevalent in smartphone technologies and tablet computers.
