Technology Feature

Being able to operate classroom equipment by a hand gesture might sound like something from Star Trek, but the technology is already here, in the form of gesture recognition.

‘Gesture Recognition’ is all about giving computers a better understanding of human behaviour, enabling people and machines to be linked more closely together.

A recent demonstration of the technology used a simple webcam connected to powerful software to count hands up, recognise faces and operate whiteboards from a distance just by using your hands and arms.

But, gesture recognition isn’t just nice to have in the classroom, it also has the potential to be extremely

Getting to the point

Technology today is closely integrated with the world around us. Our mobile phones, for instance, can now tell where we are, point out the nearest train station or restaurant on a map, and give directions on how to get there. This kind of interactivity with our surroundings is now heading into the classroom. In this article we look at ‘Gesture Recognition’ and what it can bring to the classroom.

useful to teachers, cutting down on admin time in lessons, and ensuring classes are as dynamic as possible.

What’s it all about?Facial indexing software has been used in digital photography for some time – the ability to recognise who is in your photos has obvious advantages for cataloguing and displaying them. Gesture recognition uses similar technology, only this time it’s been designed to work from a distance, in conjunction with cameras that can ‘read’ gestures from students and teachers alike.

The technology itself has been pioneered by our engineers and scientists in Japan. It’s essentially a mathematical algorithm that

Technology Featurereferences faces with raised hands. In short, it’s a way for computers to understand body language.

How can it be used?It’s all very well to have fancy tech in the classroom, but all this talk of futuristic computing is no good for anyone if it doesn’t actually deliver any results for teachers. The point of gesture recognition is that it motivates and engages classes, helping students focus throughout the lesson. For teachers, it helps them to be as mobile as possible around the classroom and cuts down on admin.

Let’s take an example for a primary teacher. Before the start of a numeracy exercise, a teacher would input the total number of students in a class, and the number of students they’d expect to get an answer right within that class. The teacher would display an image on an interactive whiteboard, and ask (for example) ‘who thinks there are there more flowers in the first garden than the

second?’When students start putting

hands up, the technology counts the number of arms raised. A face could be displayed on the whiteboard, with a smile that gets progressively wider as more hands are raised. When the threshold number of hands is reached, a celebration animation could be

displayed, showing fireworks or applause for example.

Mobile learningThat’s just one example. There are numerous possibilities for this kind of technology in learning. The most obvious advantage is that the technology frees the teacher from

the front of the room – he or she can move around freely and still control a white board using the Infra Red Wireless microphone technology along with gestures. Scrolling back and forth through a slide show or stopping and starting a video is easy, if the teacher is still within visual range of the camera detecting gesture recognition.

In Panasonic’s gesture recognition technology, holding up a right hand will move a presentation on by a slide, or pause and fast-forward a Quicktime movie. Conversely, by holding up their left hand, a teacher can move a slide show back a slide, or pause and rewind a movie.

Keeping concentrationThe technology can also be used to monitor concentration, simply by registering and counting the number of faces turned towards the whiteboard. This is particularly useful in large environments such as lecture theatres, where a tutor might not be able to see and interact with every student due to sheer class sizes. In the future, it could be developed to

Technology Featurealert lecturers when concentration is waning so that steps can be taken to re-engage the class.

Gesture recognition can also be a useful tool for improving concentration among those at the very start of their education. Primary teachers will often need to focus their attention on one pupil, even if it’s only for a few minutes. By using gestures to control animations and interactive displays on a whiteboard, those teachers can help maintain concentration and motivation among other members of the class.

The future of learning?Those are the most relevant applications of gesture recognition

in schools. In the longer term, the possibilities are almost endless. Fans of the technology will tell you it could eliminate the need for mice and keyboards altogether over the next few years.

Regardless of what the future holds, there’s no substitute for good teaching and an engaging subject matter. Gesture recognition

can only ever enhance this, it will never replace it.

Used properly, the technology can improve engagement and concentration levels, and can make learning more fun and interactive for students, while giving more freedom to teachers to be as creative and engaging as possible.

For a demonstration of gesture recognition, go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTjV_BYUvtM

What sort of teaching allows students to take ownership of

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