Atlas Gloves: Put the World in your Hands

Google Earth is one of the single most amazing applications I’ve used in the last few years. The ability to fly anywhere on Earth, and view high-resolution satellite imagery of almost any location is one of the most liberating feelings in the world. Almost as liberating as actually getting out and traveling.

Up until now, the tools you could use to control your movements within the application were limited to standard input devices: keyboard, mouse, maybe a joystick or game pad. “New Media hackers,” Dan Phiffer and Mushon Zer-Aviv, have devised a new way of navigating through this virtual world, and they call it Atlas Gloves.

Cue the music.

According to their website, “Atlas Gloves is a DIY physical interface for controlling 3D mapping applications like Google Earth. The user interface is a pair of illuminating gloves that can be used to track intuitive hand gestures like grabbing, pulling, reaching and rotating.”

What does this mean to you and me? With a webcam, a trip to the sporting goods store, a little handy-craft work, and a special program, you can put the mouse down, and instead make your way across the surface of the earth with a wave of your hand. Best of all? It’s cheap (the supplies cost less than $10 USD), pretty easy to do, and will really impress your friends.
According to the DIY guide, here’s the tools you’ll need to complete the project:

  • 2 White LED Keychains, we got ours at RadioShack.
  • 2 white Ping-Pong balls
  • 1 Glue Gun (or any other strong glue)
  • 1 Nail

Once you’ve gathered your supplies, head over to the Atlas Gloves DIY guide, and follow the instructions to construct your very own futuristic hand gesture interface.

Still confused? This handy video does a pretty good job explaining what the Atlas Gloves actually do.