In Minority Report, the agents of a police state monitor people's lives using giant computer screens that they operate using mid-air hand gestures. In the real world, however, it is surgeons-not spies-who may be the first to handle data in this way.

Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel have developed a hand-gesture recognition system that lets doctors manipulate digital images during medical procedures by motioning instead of touching a screen, keyboard, or mouse.

The system, called Gestix, comprises a color video camera above a flat, widescreen monitor placed next to the operating table. The video signal from the camera is fed to a PC, where software trained to detect the color of the surgeon's gloves tracks the movements of their hand.

Unlike the EyeToy and Wii gaming systems, which require the user to hit target areas on a screen or hold a controller, Gestix simply requires the surgeon to learn eight gestures.

The gestures are captured by a Canon VC-C4 camera positioned above a large flat-screen monitor, and Windows XP-based 600-MHz Intel Pentium system and a Matrox Standard II video-capturing device. Ongoing research is targeting system expansion to include additional control modes (e.g., voice).