Controlling your computer with a wave of the hand seems like something from science fiction, and for good reason. From Minority Report to Iron Man, we’ve seen plenty of famous actors controlling their high-tech computer systems by wildly gesticulating in the air. Meanwhile, Since the 1970s personal computers have mouse and keyboards.

I think soon the mouse and keyboards will be replaced with gesture control technology.

I built a device to control a computer with hand gestures, this device does not replace the mouse and keyboards but it makes using the computer more fun and you can customize it based on your needs.

Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. Gestures can originate from any bodily motion or state but commonly originate from the face or hand.

Users can use simple gestures to control or interact with devices without physically touching them

I used PAJ7620U2 Gesture Sensor.

PAJ7620U2 Gesture Sensor, gesture recognition function with general I2C interface into a single chip. It can recognize 9 gestures including move up, move down, move left, move right, etc. with a simple swipe of your hand.

(this sensor works with 3.3V)

for this project you need use HID (Human Interface Device) supporting Arduino. I used Digispark board.

You have to be aware that a lot depends on the timing.

For example, if you move your hand towards the sensor, it will read as forward and send a zoom in command. While executing this command, you must quickly move your hand away from the sensor, otherwise it will read as a backward and sends the zoom out command.

you can customize this times with delays and GES_REACTION_TIME , GES_QUIT_TIME in the code.

Looking through the provided source code, you can see just how easy it is to talk to the PAJ7620U2. With nothing more exotic than a switch case statement, you are able to pick up on the gesture flags coming from the sensor. From there, it’s just a matter of using the Arduino Keyboard library to fire off the appropriate keycodes.