It's becoming quite clear that buttons and physical controls are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, with all sorts of devices that translate one's physical movements into commands making their way onto the market (just take a look at Microsoft's Kinect, for example).

And it looks like Extreme Reality (XTR) and Texas Instruments (TI) are preparing yet another interesting surprise in this field, since the two companies have partnered in order to deliver a touchless gesturing engine and gesturing application framework for mobile devices.

Camera-based, touchless gesturing technology will enable mobile devices to track and recognize human body gestures, in order to command and control different applications on mobile devices.

The companys' joint approach uses a single, low-cost 2D camera, similar to what is used for video conferencing today, combined with a real-time motion capture software engine from XTR running on the OMAP platform from TI.

Using single- or multiple-finger gesturing, users can point, click, drag, scroll, zoom and rotate – all with simple hand movements that never even touch the screen.

This touchless gesturing will enable applications such as controlling a handheld device while walking, controlling a mobile phone while driving, as well as controlling a remotely placed mobile device such as in a docking station or next to a TV screen in the other side of the room.

To further this effort, TI has made an equity investment in XTR.

As a result of this collaboration, the companies will deliver a cost effective and power efficient solution for touchless gesturing that is optimized for the OMAP platform, leveraging the hardware resources of the OMAP 4 processor.

"Touchless gesturing is one of the 'must-have' applications for the next wave of mobile devices.

To that end, it's critical that TI choose the right partner who can leverage the power and performance of the OMAP platform with their expertise in order to make our vision a reality. XTR is that partner," said Avner Goren, director of OMAP platform strategy, wireless business unit, TI.

"XTR is a world leader in developing motion capture software engines that can enable new and exciting ways for humans to interact with devices in much more intuitive ways, from mobile devices to game consoles and TVs," added Dor Givon, CEO, XTR, also saying that "we are excited to partner with TI as it will allow us to offer a robust, high performance and low power solution, coupled with the tools needed for application developers to leverage gestures in ways that may exceed our wildest expectations."

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