Hand gestures.

I’m sure you’ve used the occasional hand gestures in your business dealings. Sometimes to express elation at a done deal, sometime to express dissatisfaction with results and expectations gone south and sometimes, when just to vent your frustrations at working with people who don’t share your vision, a middle finger may be involved.

So it comes as no surprise that gesture sensing technology by companies like Primesense, are looking to find avenues and opportunities in business enterprise to bring the computer closer to total engagement with the human form.

The cutting edge car technology that recognises you as you approach your vehicle to unlock the car, adjust the seat and seatbelt to any weight change you may have encouraged over that long lunch, maybe not even starting if you are inebriated to playing the appropriate song if you nod off on the way home. Yes ACDC will be standard for such systems as no one can sleep through Highway to Hell at top volume.

The entertainment industry has already picked up on the technology and WII along with others like Xbox are continually improving the recognition factor. I look forward to the day I come home from work and nod at my TV and it turns on ESPN, then flicks to the news as I work on dinner and then look for a good movie as I soon as it sees me making a coffee. I know, I know, you think the wife should do all that but I’m too aware of my own safety to push that button.

All that said, we want to see applications in everyday business that can make our processes and interactions with our clients more engaging. Tom Cruise in Minority Report comes to mind as he grabs images and reports out of the air to place them on a holographic screen. That technology is further advanced that we think and we need only look at someone like Sabre Pacific with their interactive desktop, looking like a giant iphone where you drag and tap items while your client looks on.

For gesture technology, the computer has to perceive and recognise your movements and know what you want to achieve with them. So for travel, we see you with a client sitting in front of you, looking at a screen, and a simple hand gesture may open a destination page, with a nod of your head a particular resort video plays showing the suite with pool. Three fingers may be required for the system to know you want to compare another two similar properties and then a thumbs up, to agree on the client’s final choice. All the while you are having a coffee and conversing freely with the client without keyboarding or flicking through information and interrupting the sale.

So the final gesture of a handshake lets the computer know to swipe the clients credit card for the deposit on their dream holiday and then to send the details to their home PC to have on file.

All this would be brilliant technology but things would have to change in regards to some gestures. Certainly frowns would have to disappear from your office to be replaced by permanent smiles as the frown would tell the computer that you no longer want the sale. Of course the middle finger would be banned totally as this would be recognised as dissatisfaction and we all know that never happens with your clients.

Maybe the middle finger could be used to reboot the system, after all, you only do that when all other avenues have been tried, right?