Will TV remotes disappear with a wave of the hand?

Picture this: Instead of picking up a massive remote to change TV channels, you just wave your hand in front of the screen. Want to pause the image? Hold out your palm in a "stop" gesture. Too loud? Just tap an ear.

Yes, gesture tech is coming to a TV near you with a vengeance—or at least, that’s what Toshiba's banking on.

The Daily Mail reports that Toshiba is demonstrating its new "gesture interface technology," which is still under development but could be ready for market within five years. A Web cam mounted on top of the TV detects your hand movements, and software converts your gestures into commands.

As the Daily Mail story notes, you could customize your TV's "gesture" remote to your liking—for example, if you want to turn the volume up, just touch your left ear. Need to turn it down? Tap your right ear. More of a hand-flapper than an ear tapper? No problem.

Even more interesting, Toshiba's gesture tech can recognize people in addition to gestures—so when Dad strolls into the den, the TV could be programmed to switch to ESPN automatically. (Oh, the kids'll love that.)

Sounds cool on paper—what about in practice? Will the TV start flipping channels each time you wave your hand in the air? Well, Toshiba is "working" to ensure that "accidental" gestures aren't mistaken for "command" gestures, according to the Mail.

And what about navigating a 999-channel programming grid, or digging several levels deep into the Settings menu? Not that I'm lazy or nothin', but I'm not sure I have the patience to wave my hand 700 times to surf to ESPN News HD. (I guess "Favorites" might come in, err, handy.)

In any case, color me skeptical for now. I've demoed a few gesture-based TV interfaces in the past, and frankly, they've still more difficult to use than a physical remote.

That said, if Toshiba comes up with a reliable way of pausing the action with a flick of the wrist—no need to frantically hunt for "Pause" in a forest of tiny buttons—well, that could be interesting.

So, what about you—would you stop tapping TV remote keys and start waving your hand once gesture tech matures?

Related:
How to change channel by simply waving your hand: The new webcam that could kill off remote controls [Daily Mail]