Brad Mauk, a developer of things Kinect and Windows Media Center related, has developed a way to increase yearly household spending on chiropractic and massage therapy services. He has done this with the Kinect for Windows paired with a Windows Media Center add-in that allows for hand gestures and voice commands to control the Media Center interface. Repetitive swiping, pinching, holding and waving your way through Media Center functionality can be had for a mere $6.99.
Brad has included an advanced audio feature that deciphers between audio from the Media Center and audio from the user so audio commands cannot be interfered with. Audio and gesture commands also can be temporarily disabled until the user opts to turn them on again. There are a couple limiting factors to Kinect for Windows Media Center. It does not work through extenders like Xbox360 and the Media Center add-in will only work with [amazon_link id=”B006UIS53K” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Kinect for Windows[/amazon_link] due to a Microsoft constraint. While months of repetitive arm movements and screaming at the TV may drive you to see the masseuse more often, it really is good to see developers using new technology like Kinect for Windows to enhance our experience with Windows Media Center.

It is going backwards, you are supposed to swipe your hand from right to left to make the page go to the left…. like a phone.
I can see a future for the voice commands, but I don’t really see these gestures taking off. THere has obviously been some really nice work done so far, but for people to adopt gesture recognition, it needs to be more precise (so large swooping gestures aren’t necessary) and a lot faster.
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