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"I wrote many novels which … contained the element of the projected collective unconscious, which made them simply incomprehensible to anyone who read them, because they required the reader to accept my premise that each of us lives in a unique world."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Gesture-Controlled Device | ||
| An electronic device that is controlled by hand gestures. |
| A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.
Zaphod waved a hand and the channel switched again. |
| Technovelgy from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
by Douglas Adams. Published by Harmony Books in 1979 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the hand wave control from Philip K. Dick's 1955 novel Solar Lottery. See also the filing crystal from Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17 (1968).
Thanks to Erik Nodacker for contributing this item.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
More Ideas
and Technology by Douglas Adams
Tech news articles related to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Tech news articles related to works by Douglas Adams
Gesture-Controlled Device-related
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- Gesture-Controlled TV Update
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- Robot Accepts Gesture Commands
- Arm Swing Authentication For Mobile Phones
- Walky iPhone Finger Gesture Robot Controller
- Gesture Cube Touch-Free Input
- 3D Input Interfaces For Gesture-Controlled Phones
- PrimeSense WAVI Xtion Gesture Control Of TV
- Geremin Gesture-Controlled Dashboard
- Control Robot Planes With Hand Gestures!
- GestIC Gesture Recognition Controller Uses Electrical Fields
- AllSee Low Power Gesture Recognition
- VW Golf R Touch With Gesture Control
- WatchSense Perfect For Fat-Fingered Smartwatch Owners
| Can Stratospheric Aerosol Injection Control The Weather? |
| Wolfram Alpha Mathematica Predicted by Science Fiction in 1948! |
| Special Lights For Driverless Cars! |
| 'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars' |
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'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'...I saw a nice black heavy-looking cloud sailing by just now, and I can get the electrical machine out in five minutes to draw it down.'
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'The answer to the dumb student's prayer.'
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'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
