Your Hands New Game Controller

Imagine playing a flight simulation video game that lets you guide the aircraft with your hands alone. Or think about sparring with a virtual boxing opponent by doing nothing but standing up and throwing punches in the air.
Your Hands New Game Controller

If an Israeli company called 3DV Systems has its way, you won't have to just imagine it, or many other examples of games that users could control entirely with their hands, for much longer. That's because its new ZCam, a 3D camera that plugs directly into a PC, is designed to let gamers' hands be the only controllers they need.

In light of the tremendous success of Nintendo's motion-sensitive Wiimote controller for its Wii video game console, 3DV is banking on making a lot of money with technology it thinks can move the genre forward even further.

The ZCam works by emitting short infrared pulses and then measuring the reflections off objects. Sophisticated software algorithms interpret those reflections in such a way that the system can judge the distance of--and distinguish between--various objects and, say, discern someone's hands.

SnapShot
A sample boxing game lets people hit a punching bag using just their fists. Both the perspective shown on the screen and where the punches land are dictated entirely by the movements of the person playing, as measured by 3DV's depth-sensing camera.

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