With Microsoft and Sony both set to reveal Natal and Move software lineups at E3, it's kind of crazy to think their invested millions may have just been usurped by a pair of $1 Lycra gloves and a webcam.


The gloves, seen above, are hideously patchwork on purpose. According to their designers at MIT, the 20 irregular shapes and 10 colors are read by a webcam and translated into unique commands via simple finger-based gestures.

The demo video is, in a word, impressive:

Click to view

Looks good, but do you hate the colors? Do they clash with your commanding GQ sense of style?


No worries, fashionista, as Francis MacDougall, CTO and co-founder of gesture-recognition company GestureTek, says the pattern could be changed to something a little less loud and still function properly. Using a "retro-reflective" material, one could make gloves with patterns that only a camera's eye could see.

Now, why "one" would want to do such a thing is beyond me. Those colors look like half the fun. [MIT via Wired]