“This kind of technology enables the control of your pointers and your cursors on large displays where it would otherwise be very cumbersome to use your own mouse and keyboard,” he says.
Doug A. Bowman, a professor of computer science and director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech, describes the technology as “still somewhat of a novelty,” but agrees it has big potential, especially in augmented and virtual reality.
“You don’t necessarily want to be holding a specialized control to interact with virtual content,” he says, adding that Microsoft’s HoloLens AR headset can recognize hand gestures to allow users to click buttons, choose menu items and swipe from one screen to the next.
“In the K–12 setting, gestures could be a great fit for hands-on projects,” Bowman adds. “For example, in the science lab, using traditional input devices such as track pads and mice to browse supporting information may not be feasible because of the messy or dangerous materials students are working with.”
Researchers from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland published a 2017 study in the British Journal of Educational Technology that looked at middle and high school students who used a virtual chemistry laboratory equipped with Microsoft Kinect gesture technology. The researchers found that students using the virtual lab had improved retention and were better at solving complex laboratory tasks.
Educational Uses of Hand Gesture Tech Will Facilitate Collaboration
The future for gesture technology seems certain: Grand View Research estimates that the global gesture recognition market will be worth nearly $31 billion by 2025, up from $6.2 billion in 2017.
Gesture technology will “increase classroom interaction,” Bowman says, “and allow students to see, learn, understand and interact with the environment, thereby creating an interactive digital world around them.”