The good news is that Microchip introduced a very cool 3D gesture IC. The bad news is that I didn't actually get to see it work because our meeting got derailed by Hurricane Sandy (if you live in New Jersey where I do, it was a hurricane, not a "superstorm"). But I did see it in action via video and got a complete download from the Microchip technical folks. And I have to say, it's pretty cool (if you know me or are a long-time reader, you know I don't get excited by these kinds of things too often).

Microchip's GestIC technology, which enables intuitive, gesture-based, non-contact user interfaces, is the heart of a range of end products, starting with the MGC3130. Microchip claims it's the first electrical-field (E-field)-based, configurable 3D gesture controller, offering low-power, precise, and fast hand position tracking with free-space gesture recognition. The part can be always on, thanks to a 150-muW active sensing state, even in battery-power applications.

GestIC achieves its high gesture-recognition rates through its on-chip library of intuitive and natural human gestures called the Colibri Suite. These tools combine a stochastic Hidden Markov model and x/y/z hand-position vectors to provide a reliable set of recognized 3D hand and finger gestures that can be easily employed in their products. Examples include wake-up on approach, position tracking, and flick, circle, and symbol gestures, all needed to perform functions such as on/off, open application, point, click, zoom, scroll, free-space, and mouse-over. This library can help designers get their products to market quickly and reduce development risks by matching their system commands to Microchip's predetermined gestures.

With Windows 8 in mind (where'd that Start button go?), it's clear where a product like this can be used. I'm excited to get my hands on one of their dev boards (called the Sabrewing MGC3130 single-zone eval kit) so I can start playing around with it myself.

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