3D Gesture Tracking Shield for Raspberry Pi MGC3130

Seeed has released a $12.90 “3D Gesture & Tracking Shield” for the Raspberry Pi that uses Microchip’s electrical near-field sensing technology for touchpad input and 3D gesture tracking at up to 10 cm.

This shield is based on Microchip MGC3130 chip, which enables the Raspberry Pi with 3D gesture recognition and motion tracking function. It can capture x y z position information, can also do proximity sensing and touch sensing, support tap and double click.

As shown in the figure below, the recognition area is divided into two parts: the strip area distributed around and a central panel.

The strip areas can sense the orientation change, including the North, South, West, and East. The central area can sense touch, tap, double click, and gestures in the air above. That’s why we call it 3D Gesture & Tracking Shield, you don’t even need to touch the central area directly, just wave your hand above the central area, and this shield can sense your movements.

Thanks to the Microchip’s patented GestIC® technology, this shield utilizes electrical near-field sensing to detect movements. The shield generates a magnetic field above the central panel when the hand approaches, it will interfere with the magnetic field, and the magnetic field receiver below the shield can detect the change.

Features

• Recognition of 3D Hand Gestures and x, y, z Positional Data
• Proximity and Touch Sensing
• Built-in Colibri Gesture Suite (running on chip)
• Advanced 3D Signal Processing Unit
• Detection Range: 0 to 10 cm
• On-chip Auto Calibration
• Compatible with various models of Raspberry Pi 2, 3, and zero

This hat communicates with Raspberry Pi via the I2C interface, also we have reserved a Grove I2C connector in case you need to work with other modules.

What an amazing module, with the help it, you can use gestures to control lights, TV, speakers… Just unleash your imagination and create more magical projects.

The 3D Gesture & Tracking Shield is available for $12.90 worldwide at this Seeed shopping page. Volume discounts are available. Seeed has also posted a wiki with sample code and a YouTube video.

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