Third-party hack brings Kinect gesture control to Google TV

A third-party developer has built an application that makes it possible to control a Google TV device with gestures captured by Microsoft’s Kinect. Leon Nichols, who is also the man behind the Able Remote smart phone app for Google TV, published the Gesture TV app complete with its source code on Github. Check out a video of the app in action below:

Gesture TV is definitely more of an experiment than anything else. The application runs on a PC, meaning that you’ll have to always sync your PC with your TV before you start to use it. Some key features of the traditional Google TV remote, including scrolling, also aren’t supported.

However, it also shows what kind of creativity is possible if a TV platform maker gives developers access to its remote control APIs. Gesture TV is based on Anymote, Google’s remote control protocol, which is also used by Nichols’ Able Remote as well as apps like Chromeremote.

We reported yesterday that Google is working on a new generation of AirPlay-like media streaming and control protocol, which the company wants to open up to other players as well. “We really want to move the whole industry forward,” said Google product manager Timbo Drayson about the new protocol.


GigaOM