Swoosh Lets You Skip Presentation Slides With A Wave Of Your Hand

Fergal Gallagher, Tech Times 06 April 2015, 05:04 pm

If you want to stand out from the crowd when you present at your next conference, this nifty little Android app might do just the trick. Swoosh allows you to skip between slides with simple hand gestures.

Users simply need to install the Swoosh app on their Android device, install the server tool on their computer and then they can flick back and forth between slides with the wave of a hand.

The $2 app is currently only available for Android devices but works with any Windows, Mac or Linux computer once both devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Swoosh can be used to control presentations made with Microsoft PowerPoint Online, Google Slides, Prezi, Slidely, Keynote and Acrobat Reader.

Swoosh uses the camera in your device to detect movements. Your whole open hand must be seen by the forward-facing camera so you need to make sure you don't stray too far from your device while presenting. Specifically, to navigate through presentation slides users need to swipe their hand about 12 inches (30 cm) above the device's screen, going from left to right to advance to the next slide, and right to left to go to the previous slide. Given the specific movements required, it's probably best to get a good deal of practise in with Swoosh before you jump on stage.

Swoosh is the latest gesture-recognition app from OnTheGo Platforms. It's custom gesture software, Ari (Augmented Reality Interface), turns any mobile device with a standard camera into a gesture interface. The company previously released the free app BrainWave, which allowed users to play, pause and skip tracks with hand gestures. BrainWave could also be used to operate bluetooth speakers and is compatible with nearly all popular music players including Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora.

OnTheGo Platforms also has a third map app in demo on the Google Play store. Ari Maps allows you to "grab" a Google Map using a closed fist and then you can zoom in or out by moving your fist closer or further away from the screen.