So, it would seem that Google has become so powerful that it merely needs to think about something and it becomes a reality within a matter of days. Well, that’s how it seems considering the fact that the Institute for Creative Technologies decided to go right ahead and make the company’s April Fool’s prank, Gmail motion, a reality.
A fake web page complete with a complimentary video explains the whole thing. It explains how Gmail motion “uses your computer’s built-in webcam and Google’s patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands.”
Clearly a send-up of Microsoft Kinect, Google even went as far as to create an absurd PDF that was completely printable. The PDF contained sample body movements for Gmail actions as well as common phrases which ICT’s Evan Suma and company took a little too seriously.
The geeks over at soda used the Kinect and a LOT of free time to create the service exactly as Google had described it on the fake site. In a demonstration, which was recorded, Suma uses some of the actual movements used in the PDF, even some of the more embarrassing ones like licking an imaginary stamp and putting it on an imaginary envelope in order to send your email.
What is surprising is that the thing these guys whipped together actually works. A split screen open to Gmail shows an email being sent on command as Suma places the invisible stamp on the invisible envelope. There has not been any word on whether or not Suma and company will follow up with Google’s April Fool’s joke to bring this type of motion control to Google Docs.
Source: PC World – Google’s April Fools Prank Comes to Life
