New gesture tech can control robots with a flick of the wrist

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle, contributing writer

Tech company DTing recently unveiled its new DTing Gesture Wristband and it might be the coolest remote ever. Inspired by comic book superheroes and targeted at hobbyists, the wristband is worn on your wrist and tracks your movements, letting you feel like you have super-human control over robots. With just the point of a finger, you could control a flying drone or a toy car. For those who are more tech-savvy, DTing is also releasing a developer model that can be used to control virtually anything.

Image source: DTing/Indiegogo.

The controller works using an array of gyroscopes, accelerometers, and delicate electromyographic sensors that measure electrical signals from skeletal muscles to measure and predict your gestures based on muscle activity rather than finger motion. This allows for delicate control of robotics regardless of experience, even when hands or fingers are missing. To use it, simply point in the direction where you want the drone to go, and it goes. What’s more, the wristband has the ability to measure the intensity of your gesture, causing a firm pointed finger to send your drone flying faster than a casual point might.

The wristband was created by DTing in conjunction with engineers and scientists from Chinese Academy of Science and German Aerospace Center. It was inspired by artificial limb technology used for people with disabilities. These prosthetic technologies use inertial measurement units and surface electromyography to detect and predict gesture and force, manipulating other electrical devices. DTing is the first to apply the technology to the control of toys and drones, breaking new ground in human-cyborg relations.

Of course, the remote could have applications outside of the realm of toys and could bring all sorts of new technological advancements. People with disabilities and a DTing wristband could potentially control wheelchairs or other devices that aid them in their daily lives. Drone technology will, no doubt, benefit greatly from the remote, eliminating the current learning curve and opening up the idea of drones to people who would have never considered them previously. Video gaming could also be affected, being a multi-billion-dollar industry that gobbles up tech advances as soon as they are released. It’s only a matter of time before gesture controls are in the mainstream, and Nintendo is already onto the idea with its Wii systems.

With every new technological advance made, we become further integrated with the devices around us, and they become more important in our lives. DTing’s remote is a large step away from the rigid and structured methods of the past, bringing us a more intuitive and natural way to interact with and control the tech devices in our lives.

DTing’s Indiegogo campaign for the technology offers the remote at a reasonable price of $49, which includes the controller as well as a connected drone toy.