Smart gesture control with the project IT

Every year, “Project IT” offers computer science students at Kiel University of Applied Sciences the opportunity to work in small groups to implement complex tasks for companies in northern Germany. Under realistic conditions, the prospective computer scientists learn what is important for a successful customer project in addition to technical know-how. The fact that we are involved in this project series for the ninth time in succession as a supervising company demonstrates how important it is to us to support the next generation of computer scientists.

This year’s task was to develop a gesture control system that allows users to control their smart home devices with simple hand gestures via an app. The challenge was to ensure that the system is intuitive, reliable and easy to use. To accomplish this task, the students first had to work together with the support of mentors Joost and Felix to thoroughly understand the underlying smart home app and hardware. The students then spent several weeks researching and testing various gesture recognition libraries. To finalize the gesture recognition system, they had to develop a WebApp that integrates gesture recognition and communicates with the smart home system. Extensive test sessions rounded off the development phase. 

The final product was a functioning gesture control system that allows users to control a coffee machine by simply gesturing with their hands in the air. The students presented the impressive result to the UXMA team and their supervising professor at the UXMA headquarters in Kiel. We congratulate the students on their very successful final presentation and great performance and would like to take this opportunity to say thank you once again. You should be proud of your performance!

We are already looking forward to the start of the next computer science project in October 2023!