Seeed recently unveiled a $12.90 "3D gesture recognition and tracking board" for Raspberry Pi.The trackpad adopts Microchip's electro-near-field sensing technology, which can realize trackpad input and 3D gesture tracking in a distance of up to 10cm.
Seeed's microchip-based MGC3130 controller and GestIC Colibri Suite firmware are the Raspberry Pi's 3D gesture recognition and tracking pad.The technique USES electrical near field induction to determine near field position and motion.Current applications include home automation, gaming and A/V control, and alternative laptop input.
3D gesture recognition and tracking board sensor area (left) and accessories display
The $12.90 3D gesture recognition and tracking pad retrieves x-y-z location information, and supports click and double click to perform proximity sensing and touch sensing.Seeed said the trackpad's trackpad sensor area has four directional bars that can be "touch-sensitive, tap, double-click, and air gesture" up to 10cm high.
Induction zone
The MGC3130 controller enables the tracking board to generate a magnetic field above the central panel.When the hand is near, it interferes with the magnetic field, allowing the field receiver under the tracking plate to detect changes.
Electric induction generated by Microchip MGC3130 and GestIC Colibri Suite
According to Microchip, MGC3130 is the world's first 3D tracking and gesture recognition controller based on electrical-field (e-field).According to Microchip, the GestIC Colibri Suite handles gesture input on the controller, with high noise resistance, high refresh rate, low latency, and resolution up to 150 DPI.
3D gesture recognition and tracking board details display
As you can see in NotebookCheck, the 3D gesture recognition and trackpad is also known as HAT.The trackpad communicates with Pi models, including Raspberry Pi 2, Raspberry Pi 3 and Raspberry Pi Zero, via the I2C bus.The tracking board is 65 x 56mm in size, with a GPIO interface of 40 pins, 3.3v input and ground, and Grove I2C connector."If the user needs to work with other modules."Seeed said.