Grayhill Releases Instinct 2.0 Gesture Recognition Library

Grayhill, Inc. announces the release of the latest version of its ground-breaking Instinct Gesture Recognition Library. Instinct is an innovative software tool that converts multi-touch sensor data into gestures, giving any device functionality similar to the iPhone. The new Instinct 2.0 version now provides capability for 3D image control, among other new features, and is ideally suited for use with control panels on a variety of equipment.

Multi-Touch gestures are becoming a highly popular means of controlling contemporary electronic devices and equipment.  Instinctive and intuitive finger movements initiate a variety of commands. Instinct Touch Technology combines the Instinct Gesture Recognition Library with a Grayhill Human Interface Device (HID) to track movements from the device’s touch pad, using as many as five fingers at a time. The data is then converted into gestures, which are fed to the user’s application or operating system.

Instinct 2.0 collects and interprets several types of tracking data for machine control and image manipulation:

1. Gesture Events: tap, double tap, touch and hold and multi-finger events

2. Dynamic Gestures: streaming data generated by continuous movement tracking, such as scrolling, rotating and zooming as well as three finger gestures such as tilt and 3D rotation. 

With all dynamic gestures, the OEM can control “momentum” parameters. This improves user efficiency, useful in applications such as simulating a trackball input.  

The most significant new feature of Instinct 2.0 is its ability to interpret gestures and optimize data for the control of 3D images. The software accomplishes this by recognizing multi-touch gestures to allow control with “six degrees of freedom.” This includes movements along the X axis (left and right movements), Y axis (up and down), Z axis (forward and backward), and the rotations around each of these three axes. No other interface solution has been able to accomplish this entire gamut of gesture reading as intuitively. Brian May, President of Grayhill, states, “this is one of the most significant innovations ever introduced by Grayhill during its long 70-year history.” 

OEM Control Applications

Instinct Touch Technology can be utilized wherever a human interface is needed for electronic controls. The software and accompanying HIDs will provide accurate and precise control for many OEM applications in addition to medical electronics, such as industrial automation, gaming and off-highway equipment. Because Instinct can accommodate multi-touch gesturing, it can execute more commands than single point touch technologies, such as joysticks or trackballs.  As a result, the control panel will need fewer control components, such as knobs, dials, joysticks, trackballs, etc., allowing the manufacturer to reduce the size and complexity of the control panel.

Instinct Touch Technology

Instinct Touch Technology is a growing family of hardware and software solutions to improve a device’s ease-of-use by facilitating multi-touch interaction with the user. This family of products currently includes the Multi-Touch Ring Encoder (MTRE) and Multi-Touch Control Wheel (MTCW) to capture touch data and the Instinct Gesture Recognition Library and the Windows 7 driver to interpret touch data.

The Instinct Gesture Recognition Library resides within an OEM’s system where it receives raw data from the MTRE or MTCW. The data is quickly processed and the results are shared with the OEM’s application. Users can select whatever gesture data is relevant and configure variables such as timing, sensitivity, momentum and 2D/3D data.

For devices running Windows 7, OEMs have the option of using Instinct’s full Gesture Recognition Library or a Windows 7 driver with basic gesture commands. This compact driver contains fixed commands that mimic a mouse or touchpad input.

Getting Started

The software parameters within the Instinct Gesture Recognition Library are fully customizable and developed utilizing Grayhill’s Instinct Software Development Kit (SDK). This design tool provides engineers with a common development platform for prototyping and evaluating different solutions. In addition, the kit includes access to example projects with step-by-step instructions. The kit is available from Grayhill and several of its stocking distributors. The kit is comprised of a mounted Multi-Touch Ring Encoder (MTRE) or Multi-Touch Control Wheel (MTCW), a standard USB cable and demo software.