I was reading coverage of the CES show yesterday and Microsoft's retreat from the show while claiming great leaps forward in the company of Nokia when a penny dropped. I am struggling to see how Microsoft/Nokia can possibly climb back into the ring as Google's Android system becomes the de facto gateway to smartphones for most of the planet and Apple continue to take the profits from their iOS high ground. And then Steve Ballmer talked about how the Kinect which is the fastest selling product of all time (less of the hyperboles please!) when it enabled XBox 360s to catch up with Wii. The Kinect allows the Xbox to be controlled with gestures alone. Next year the Kinect is being launched for the PC. Just think about the implications if your computer and then your mobile phone (windows OS) use the built in camera to record and respond to your gestures. Is this the next game changer which brings Nokia and Microsoft back into the mainstream?
It reminded me that gesture is becoming significant because of the sheer numbers of people pressing swiping and pinching touchscreens now when they used to peck at keyboards real or virtual. And the next generation of pads and mobiles are likely to come with apps which allow you to create your own interfaces to do interesting and useful things. The inmates are learning to take over the asylum.
With my research hat on I can see how the rise of the camera in accessiblity and ease of use and distribution of images has driven ethnography the last 5 years. Ethnographers used to tell us it wasn't an ethnography study unless the subjects DIDN'T know what the topic of the study was about. That was before everyone had their own cameraphone and it became a resource to interesting to resist. So now ethnography is mostly carried out by the very people we are purporting to study. Technology is driving the methodology.
Look forward and consider what happens when we can use machine intelligence and automated processing to collect and analyse human gestures. I predict that the focus on research will switch to micro behaviours. With some justification. Because if you are spending quantities of time waving your hands around to tell machines what to do the impact on your body language and observed behaviour is likely to be significant - making it easier for the machines to track.
And what kinect could be the gateway to is less a control interface than a way in which a machine can interpret what you want to do from your gestures (and facial expression - yes the software for this is also available now). So I suppose the authorities can watch bank robbers limbering up before the breakin. And market researchers can expect our film clips of different activities to be classified by gesture before we have even reviewed them. Interesting times.
Here's a showcase from Microsoft Kinect to get you thinking. Her's another with the use of Kinect with Windows 7 the current Microsoft OS. I am going to start thinking about how to incorporate gestures as part of research studies. From now on. Call me if you want to pursue this more.
