Sign language: Flutter uses movement to play media

San Francisco – Technology start-up Flutter recently released a new version of its app, which enables users to control media playback on computers and smartphones with hand gestures alone.

The app uses built-in cameras to detect and respond to movements, letting users play, pause and scroll between media without navigating between windows or touching a mouse or keyboard. The service works on Spotify, iTunes, VLC, Quicktime, Keynote, and several other services. Gestures to control volume are under development.

As a touchless interface, the service draws comparisons to Microsoft’s motion-sensing input device Kinect. But Flutter’s founders want their service to be more intuitive. Rather than teach users specific gestures, they want computers to interpret the movements we already make. In the future, Flutter hopes to streamline the many existing commands on the web into a basic gestural vocabulary.

For more examples of technology moving towards minimal, intuitive interfaces, read our Intuitive Futures macrotrend.