Help...Kinect mouse tracking for ultimate man cave

[tatripp]

Hello everyone. I bought a house one year ago, and I'm not married yet. Until I get married, I will continue to build the ultimate man cave. I have an awesome home theater set up with a 125'' projector, surround sound, Alexa voice controls (lights, video input and music), Switch/PC/Wii U/PS3/etc, reclining theater seats with USB chargers built in. You would think that I am set for summer, but like Icarus, I want more. I want to be the ultimate couch potato for the rest of the summer. I want my skin to merge with the leather of my recliner.



Basically I would like to control my PC from my chairs without a physical mouse. I know I won't be able to type. I pretty much would use it to browse my media or to open up my bookmarks and browse with links. I played with the Kinect once at my friend's house back in the day. It seemed...okay. I plan on trying to use it or something like it to veg out for the rest of the summer. Here are my concerns and issues that I was hoping that you guys could help me with:
1) Will the Kinect reach me from my chairs? Will it work in a dark room? It seems like the answer is yes from my research, but is the Kinect functional enough?
2) Will the Kinect work in dark rooms?
3) Will the Kinect reach me from about 12-16 feet away?
4) Are there any programs that you know of that will make this work effectively? I did some research, but most of the stuff looks super old or like a proof of concept and not very functional.

If you have any other advice, please let me know.

 

[RevPokemon]

Why (if I may ask) not just use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it would likely be much easier than a Kinect if only for the sake of frustration due to accuracy?

 

[tatripp]

Why (if I may ask) not just use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it would likely be much easier than a Kinect if only for the sake of frustration due to accuracy?

I do use that currently and it is great, but sometimes I would prefer not to get up when I left it/them in another seat.

 

[McBing]

Hmmm, what about leap ? I don't know how EXACTLY it works, but maybe it's a better solution than kinect

 

[migles]

Hmmm, what about leap ? I don't know how EXACTLY it works, but maybe it's a better solution than kinect

how do you click and drag stuff?

 

[McBing]

So... I watched some videos, and I THINK (!... I'm not a great thinker so please don't get your hopes too high) it depends on how far away your hand is from the sensor... so you can place the sensor in front of your chair (or maybe on the armrest or something) and when your hand is hovering BEFORE the sensor your cursor just moves, and if your hand is BEHIND the cursor you "touch" the icons.

So I think that would help with the clicking and dragging, I don't know about right clicks, but it recognizes all 5 fingers, so maybe if you use 2 fingers for right click it works.

 

[hobbledehoy899]

Does it work with Tumbleweed?

 

[tatripp]

Hmmm... Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll look into Leap and continue to research.