Embodied user interfaces will become a part of everyday life

Hand gestures to control televisions, computers and screens   At the Housing Fair in Tampere, Professor Markku Turunen showed how you can learn to chop wood interactively with the help of a gestural user interface. Embodied user interfaces are set to become a part of everyday life and make the one-way information flow interactive. The first televisions and computers with an embodied user interface have become available in Finland this year.

The next step will be taken in public and semi-public spaces. Researchers at the University of Tampere have observed that people are interested in these devices but hesitant to use them. Almost 150,000 people at the Housing Fair in Tampere had the opportunity to test a system that demonstrated how home energy solutions can be controlled with a gestural interface.  

– People are afraid to use such a device in public; they think that it’s embarrassing. If they can get over that hurdle and find that it’s easy to operate the device and that it looks modern, the device can make a breakthrough. Then we can get to the real benefits, says Markku Turunen, Professor of Interactive Technology.

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