You may not know it, but you might already have gesture control software at your fingertips on any number of devices. But what is gesture control software? Essentially, this software uses built-in or connected cameras to capture your movements. These captured movement data is used to interpret commands for various devices, apps and services.

 The most common and probably the most popular use of gesture control software can be found on television sets and mobile phones. Samsung’s Smart TV and Sony’s Bravia series allow people to control their TV screens with hand gestures to swipe between channels, zoom in or enlarge the pictures and open television apps.

  Mobile failures

  The Samsung Galaxy S4 introduced fine-tuned gesture control software for your mobile phone experience when they allowed users to scroll up and down their phone screen by moving their eyeballs. Users could also control their phone by hovering their fingers above the screen instead of the ‘barbaric typing. It must be noted, though, that the experience of gesture control for something so small as a phone might have been too premature. People did not take too much to hovering their fingers above their phone screen.

  The technology is right in front of you

  Nonetheless, gesture control is surely on its way to becoming an integral part of consumer technology. Why? Since it only requires a camera and software, a lot of brands are offering free and paid downloads of updates that activate gesture control on their laptops and desktop PCs. The technology is already in place; it’s just a matter of setting it up.

 Another great thing about gesture control is that it’s supported by all types of hardware and software. If you plan to make it the primary way you interact with your tech-savvy home, there are already ways to let you do just that. You can control your television, appliances, mobile devices and computers with a movement of your hand.

  But is it everywhere?

 How about apps and services? Do all apps and services support gesture control? The answer is, not yet. But you can be sure that in the future almost all services and apps shall have provisions for gesture control. As of the moment, though, general computer users and the consumer tech market have already integrated gesture control into their services. Apps like Adobe Reader, Window Media Player, Windows Photo Viewer and a lot of other application already support this type of UI.

  How much do companies want it?

 AMD is one company that offers a tool that is free to download so you can activate gesture control for their branded processors. They even have a tool that determines if your laptop or PC can support their free download.

 But why isn’t it being marketed aggressively? If gesture control is such a great technology why aren’t we seeing more of it? The simple answer is: it’s too early. Companies are waiting for a big break, something to make gesture control cool and mass-appealing. As of the moment, only people who can afford to integrate technology into every facet of their loves can maximize the use of gesture control. People who rely simply on a mobile phone and a laptop might not feel the need to learn gestures since they only have two devices.

 Another problem with gesture control is adaptability. Brands and companies are still working on how to roll it out to the mass market. Do they impose gestures that people have to learn? Or do they let people take the time to input their own gestures? For the former, this means training, manuals and higher cost of development. For the latter, it means time and resources spent on the user’s part that may make the whole endeavour too tedious.