Pausing live TV is about to get easier. All you’ll have to do is get up and walk out of the view of the screen, according to researchers working on the technology.
The remote-less remote control is one application of the algorithms being developed by PredictGaze, a Santa Clara, Calif. startup working at the intersection of computer vision and machine learning.
Other applications in the works include the ability to control your iPad with your eyes and mute a stereo with a “shh” gesture.
Similar remote control is possible today with Microsoft’s Kinect, but PredictGaze aims to achieve that kind of functionality with less expensive hardware, such as a basic webcam, Gigaom notes in post on the company.
You can check out a series of videos on the technologies under development at the PredictGaze website. The self-pausing TV is featured below.
When this technology will move from the lab and to our living rooms is uncertain, but the news does suggest that we couch potatoes of the future almost certainly will be even lazier than we are today.
– via Gigaom
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.