Motion Control For Smart Remotes

Anupama Nair
Vicara
Published in
3 min readOct 5, 2020

Televisions have seen fascinating improvements over the last decade. From sets that are thinner than french fries to “smart tvs” that are smarter than most computers.

We can now play games, browse the internet, stream videos endlessly until we’re asleep & so much more. But there’s just one thing that our smart TVs aren’t too smart at… interaction.

Remotes have gotten smaller, buttons have become fewer, but has the experience gotten better?

For the most part, yes. But then there are those moments when you have to type out an entire sentence. You dread it! What’s worse? You get half way through & realise you made a mistake. And in that moment, you’re just about ready to throw the remote at the television set. Of course we don’t because we paid a bomb for that TV.

So then you go ahead and invest in a bluetooth keyboard just for your TV set & keep that big ol keyboard by your bed or on your couch. But wouldn’t it be better if the remote that came with the TV could make this whole process better?

The answer is “motion control”. Motion control can bring about natural or easy interactions that are both easy to learn & fun to use. An independant study showed that among the people surveyed, 80% preferred a natural user interface based on gestures & motion. So where is our step forward ?

The Smart Remote Reimagined

Imagine a remote ( it already exists ) that has been fitted with a miniscule chip that can sense, detect, analyse & identify motion & gestures. This remote is then capable of a multitude of features like swipe keyboards, gesture-based controls, motion gaming & so much more.

What can this remote do?

  • Gesture Control
  • Dial-based controls for volume / brightness / colours etc
  • Motion controls for gaming
  • Swipe-to-type keyboard
  • Point & Click actions

And the list goes on… the integrations you could think of are innumerable. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

At Vicara, we’ve put together a remote that can be easily integrated with existing or new smart TVs to revolutionise the future of Smart TV interactions.

Smart remotes with gesture control can take away the one pain-point that every smart TV owner has — Typing on the Television. Swipe to type, now on your TV. Just wave your remote around like a magic wand and you’re done.

‍In an on-going project, Vicara’s Motion Engine is being placed within remotes of India’s largest set-top box providers. The remotes will bring about a wave of change in the way we interact with our Television sets.

The remotes will now be capable of motion based pointer control, gesture based UI control, motion based typing, gesture-based application control, motion-based gaming, etc.

The vision for motion-control based remotes is expanding every single day. See a new horizon? Get in touch with Vicara to get started.

--

--