How to make intuitive gesture-controlled apps using Intel RealSense

Imagine your software could see the user, and respond to his or her body movements, reactions or spoken commands. That’s becoming a possibility thanks to Intel® RealSenseTM technology, which uses a 3D camera and the free Intel® RealSenseTM SDK to enable capabilities such as hand tracking, facial analysis and voice command.

The technology opens up a world of new opportunities, but usability will be as important as ever to ensure that apps are a success. Intel has published the RealSense UX Design Guidelines, a free ebook that not only outlines how the technology can interact with users, but also tells you how to get the best out of it, how to avoid user fatigue, and how to provide good visual feedback.

One guideline that struck me as particularly important is to be inspired by the real world, but not slavish in your recreation of it. It can be hard for users to accurately wrap their fingers around a virtual object, for example, and the same effect could be achieved by enabling them to grab near to it. The ebook includes a number of other guidelines that will also help to shape great apps.

Using the SDK, you can also detect and estimate the intensity of six key emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. Imagine the impact of a game that adjusted to how the player was feeling, or an application that proactively provided help when it detected users were struggling. Using Intel RealSense, you could create software with empathy for the user.

To find out more, download the free guide. It’s bound to inspire some great new app ideas, and will help you to prepare for the next evolutionary phase of human-computer interaction.

This blog post is written bySofttalkblog, and is sponsored by the Intel Developer Zone, which helps you to develop, market and sell software and apps for prominent platforms and emerging technologies powered by Intel Architecture.