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##Don't make me wave!

My book report isn’t on a blog post or argument per se, but a technology that appears to be coming into fashion. Yesterday an article came out on Hacker News declaring that Flutter has been acquired by Google. Flutter is a motion sensor technology that controls apps or devices on your laptop by waving your hand in front of its little webcam camera. Google has evidently seen the future here.

Another company with a very similar product is just now starting their first production run. LeapMotion makes use of infrared LEDS triangulated in a motion field that extends from a small device that’s just now being embedded in laptops. A cone of detection extends upward from your computer and you wave your hands through it to manipulate programs, most usefully probably for 3-D drawing when a Z axis is needed.

I’m actually somewhat conflicted about this new technology trend. On the one hand I feel like advancements, whatever they may be, are always beneficial to humanity. And we should always be ready to embrace change, considering that the mainstream typically embraces whatever new technologies they find useful and shuns those they consider to be ridiculous.

But on the other hand I feel like the human-to-computer interface is time tested and works perfectly well using my hot little fingertips. And also that sitting around in your office workspace gesticulating like some kind of deranged lunatic simply to make your computer do things doesn’t seem ideal. I mean who’s got the time or the energy for that?

The reaction on Hacker News to the news of Google’s acquisition of Flutter seemed mostly positive, with just about all of the comments coming in with well wishes to the company. This of course my be because YC was a founding VC funder of Flutter and they want to see their prodigal child make good in the world.

At the end of the day though, I’d rather see computer interfaces go a different direction. I never like having to talk to my phone to make it do things. And I’m fairly certain I’m not going to want to give my laptop’s camera gang signs to make it launch Spotify.

Personally I’d rather something quiet and motionless to connect my technology. Something like brain waves. I want to just think, “computer, play Led Zeppelin” and it will throw down Houses of the Holy without me having to do anything. This is actually not as far fetched as it sounds. There are already scientists using transmitted brain patterns to talk to each other and (admittedly rather scarily) make them DO things purely with their mind.

We’ll see where this gesture technology goes. But as far as I’m concerned, Google shouldn’t go down that road. We really don’t need to look more silly than we already do in life. And besides, it’ll just give the luddites more reason to criticize our already fully electronically augmented lifestyles.