Open Source Tool Lets You Control Linux Desktop and Play Games by Tracking Your Gestures

Skeltrack is a Free and Open Source Software library by Igalia for tracking the human skeleton joints from depth images.

It is implemented with GLib and uses plain mathematics to detect the human skeleton and although it does not use any database, it was inspired by Andreas Baak's paper: A Data-Driven Approach for Real-Time Full Body Pose Reconstruction from a Depth Camera.

Skeltrack devs have recorded very cool videos showing Gnome Shell and Linux games being controlled through gestures.

One or both hands are used control the mouse pointer, perform clicks, drag things around and simulates a pinch gesture which adjusts the zoom level. Hands can be also interpreted as if holding a steering wheel, making racing games so much fun.

Skeltrack is device agnostic however you can use Kinect to start with. Full source code and documentation can be found here.

via Joaquim Rocha / Ars Technica