From TV to videos to music on the move, today’s digital entertainment is as much about taking part as it is about experiencing.

Gestures replace buttons in Hitachi’s TV remote control system.

Wave buttons goodbye
In future we’ll be more than just passive viewers of television. Already, we interact with TV via enhanced-functionality features on some satellite channels; now the whole business of TV-watching is moving towards becoming a much more active experience. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas featured technologies that suggest where we’re headed.

When TV remotes are becoming as complex as Space Shuttle dashboards, there’s bound to be interest in efforts to do away with control buttons – or, for that matter, ditching the remote altogether. We’re talking control by means of physical movement or hand gestures.

Hitachi has designed a TV that actually eliminates the remote. Instead, it responds to gestures (no, not that one). Users switch on the set by waving a hand in front of it. Other gestures such as side-to-side movement and arm position are used to access various other controls. The TV generates a 3-D map of the area in front of it, and a sensor responds to movement using gesture-tracking software. Range is up to 3 metres.

A rapid wave will power up the set, and a circular motion will change either the video source or the channel. The technology can also discriminate between single- and two-hand gestures, providing additional command options. Because of the underlying Canesta 3D sensor’s immunity to extremes in room lighting or décor, the interface will work equally well in any room or outside environment.

“The touchless, gesture-based interface is one of the most exciting projects that the Hitachi Consumer Business Group has worked on in some time,” said Hiroyuki Mizukami, chief technology officer of the group and general manager of the Hitachi Consumer Electronics Laboratory. “Consumers have shown a growing preference for the multi-touch, gestural interface pioneered by the iPhone, but that is only appropriate for small devices in your hand or embedded in a surface. For control of entertainment devices across the room, such as a television or multi-media centre, the next logical step is gestures in open air.”

Hitachi developed the system using 3-D sensing from Canesta and motion tracking and control from Gesturetek.

Get it online
Several manufacturers, among them LG and Sony, are punting TVs with built-in hardware to get content online. With broadband access potentially exploding later this year, South Africans could realistically consider access to the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Blockbuster. YouTube’s high-def streaming will also be within reach.

Every widget way
Road warriors are familiar with widgets, those friendly little, um, widgets that stream information to your mobile. Word is that everybody from Yahoo to MySpace is preparing their own versions of these mini-programs to bring everything from sports info and weather to social networking chat – on our TVs.

And here’s a twist: we could even start seeing them as part of TV programmes. It’s been reported that Disney boss Anne Sweeney is talking about squeezing widgets into shows such as Lost to provide extra clues about the mysterious island.