The irrelevance of the television remote control

A company is currently working on the next generation television which will see the disappearance of the remote control.

Softkinetic, a company based in Brussels (Belgium) are working on developing tomorrow’s television, with the notable absence of the remote control.

Equipped with a 3D camera, this television will be able to explore its environment and look for people present in the room. By then detecting their movements and interpreting them, the television will be able to reproduce the actions of the remote. Moving your hand, for example, may signal that you with to change the channel or turn the volume up.

The difference with this technology as opposed to what is already present in the Nintendo Wii is that the user will require no additional equipment, with Michel Tombroff, head of Softkinetic indicating that everything will be done naturally.

The search for people in proximity will go further then just simple detection, as it will analyse the actions of the person or detect if someone is just walking in front so as to offer services to the viewer like consulting their email accounts.

This technology is still in the developmental phase, although Softkinetic is looking to work double time to have a product released for Christmas 2010. We will see where this goes over the coming year then.