Have you picked up a Google TV box yet? It’s pretty cool isn’t it? But, what if you could control it with gestures? That’s what one developer had in mind when he set out to find a way to hook up his Kinect to his Google TV. He succeeded and he has made it available to the public, but it’s still pretty much experimental stuff.
The app, called Gesture-TV, is available now from github. In addition to the obvious needs — a Kinect and a Google TV box — you will also have to have a computer. Not exactly stringent requirements so far, but the setup can prove a bit geeky. The developer of this “hack”, entertailion, has outlined the steps.
This may not be for the feint of heart but, according to the comments on the post, it does seem to be working. It can be set up using a Windows, Mac or Linux computer.
Once set up there are two ways you can control this:
- Pointer mode: If you hold up one hand and keep the other down to your side. Move your hand to position the pointer. Push to select.
- Gesture mode: If you hold up one hand and then the other. For the first hand, swipe down to go home or swipe left to go back.
Sound like science-fiction? Remember that Kinect can already control an Xbox in much this same way so porting that control to Google TV isn’t as far-out as it may have seemed at first glance. Go ahead. Give it a shot and let us know what you think.