Tuesday, April 5, 2011

April Fools' Joke "Gmail Motion" Comes To Life


So I'm sure many of you caught wind of Google's April Fools Day Joke, Gmail Motion. I'm also quite sure many of you probably wish it was a reality. I mean come on, it looks quite silly, but who wouldn't want to mess around in the office with something like that?

Though I wish it were real, I still knew it was a hoax while watching the introduction video to Gmail Motion. I don't know how I did, but it probably had to do with the fact that it was April 1st and everything must be questioned on that day. On a side note, the video also looked quite satirical and that raised some flags for me as well.


Anyways! For those of you who were disappointed that this wasn't a reality(myself included), you have no need to be disappointed any longer!

After the guys from Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern California saw the video they sprung into action. Using a Kinect, the team recorded the gestures used in Google's prank video and wrote a code that actually works.

Check the Kinect hack in action here:
Click for ICT's Gmail Motion video

If you haven't seen the original from Google:
Click for Google's April Fools' prank: Gmail Motion

And if you think you can handle putting together something yourself,
get the ICT code here.

I know Gmail Motion is silly and would never catch on because it simply isn't practical, but I love the fact that we live in a world where people can turn some crazy ideas into reality.

What do you guys think?

33 comments:

pezasied said...

Haha I lve it when people see an idea like this and actually create it

Eric P said...

Haha I saw this yesterday. I love that they actually made it happen. Brilliant.

Grafted said...

That is awesome, even if it is impractical

Joe said...

I've seen people doing stuff like that to motion before. but its really impractical lol

Unknown said...

oh god i h ate such interfaces
after destroying the gaming industrie by tons of casual crap now they gonna flood application interfaces with useless motion controlls

Nope said...

Ah now I wish I had kinect just so I could mess around with this.

Fishy Corporation said...

Awesome that they made a code that worked for it, good aprilfools!

Anonymous said...

I saw the video of the guy with the Kinect when it came out, and it was so good. Haha. I'd totally use it too, beats sitting on my ass all day.

SOMS said...

lol thats great, we might not ever use it its fun that it exists!

ExoticBlogger said...

haha google at it again!

Pentele said...

My face is melting, oh gawd.

MrBunni said...

ugh April fools, always messing with me.

Niek said...

Awesome lol

T. Banacek said...

People have too much time on their hands.

lol said...

Banacek, lol they get paid to do that stuff = profiting off of time on their hands.

Trelin said...

Now I wanna see the webcam-controlled starcraft thing made real.

FOLLOWPIX said...

Nice post :-) I'm learning so much reading your blog!

However, yes, my city, Genoa, is beautiful and I recently studied that it was one of the most important from 1300 to 1500, with Venice.
But now. every little street is usually dirty unfortunatelly. And modern travel ways are still so far from us. It remains to tha past, that when it comes to take photos etc is ok :-) And I adore these views and sightseeing and little old shops.
But tourism is damaged by the bad organization I think.

But I love my city:-) Especially for its past.
Anna <3

FOLLOWPIX said...

!So strange! I can read your comments in my e-mail inbox, but not on the blog?!? So strange.. Anna

TheMonopolyGuy said...

Wasn't googles april fools joke the ISP program through the toilet?

RootYourDroid.net said...

Hah that's funny!! I cant wait to wave my hands around to check my email.

CandleintheDark said...

I actually thought this was pretty funny lol.

Google is awesome

Clueless Dolphin said...

hahha that's great, good job google

Lhosreiff said...

Wow I would totally use it just because it exists.

Unknown said...

It's stuff like this that makes me want to buy a Kinect - And I don't even own a 360!

Pappa Püllï said...

I find the April jokes this year a little lame but that could be me getting more mature :P

Megan Hansen said...

lol, i might have to try this out for myself

duffboi said...

Neat, but seems like it requires more energy with gestures... so much for efficiency, i guess :P

Danny Murphy said...

I've heard that Kinect is being used for all sorts of crazy stuff like this, I remember reading about it being used in 3D medical scans.

Moobeat said...

what a turn of events

EmoGoth said...

I like that they saw the Google joke as a challenge.

Andrew said...

ok seriously, the guy's face when hes clicking around is hilarious

Vexu said...

nice April joke :D

StonedBlogo said...

i didn'^t like this prank

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More

 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Walgreens Printable Coupons