Called the Bird, this small device consists of a plastic shell that's strapped to your index finger. Packed with a number of sensors, Bird allows you to use all kinds of motions -- like swipe, pull, move, grab, rotate, push and hover -- to interact with the world around you.
Bird can sync up to your TV or projector in order to create a huge "touchscreen" that doesn't actually need to be touched; just move your hand around the screen and swipe, grab and push your way around to select what you want.
But some of the more interesting applications of the Bird come from the way it can interact with other devices and apps, taking the role of a smart controller that enables you to put down your phone and interact more intuitively.
"IoT [internet of things] still demands that you look for your phone, unlock it, load the application and then start interacting with it," the team writes on its website. "With bird, nothing is simpler. It will replace all of your remote controls and will free you from your tablet and smart phone. Control the room, control all of the rooms, at a fingertip. No switching devices. No waiting. No complications."
Although it has a lot of scope for personal, at-home use, MUV Interactive believes it also has potential in educational and corporate settings. And of course the professional applications are theoretically varied, from a medical setting through to architecture and museum tours -- anything that allows you to naturally engage with an audience and intuitively interact with digital objects, apps and hardware could be improved.
Although Bird looks easy-to-use and super smart, it's not the first gesture-based input device on the market. Gaming systems including the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Kinect helped bring it to the mainstream but the space is now quickly filling up with ambitious startups keen to push gesture-based and motion-tracking boundaries to new heights, like virtual sphere, Leap Motion, the Myo wristband and Mycestro.
Bird is available to pre-order now and the first 10,000 will retail at $149 (around £97), before going back up to its regular price of $249 (around £163).
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
