Student develops system to control PC racing games with hand gestures

Bengaluru: Ayaan Khan, a first-year computer science student at Scaler School of Technology in the city, has developed a hand gesture control system for PC racing games. 

This innovative system allows gamers to steer their virtual cars by simply waving their fingers in front of a webcam, offering a novel and immersive gaming experience that deviates from traditional control schemes. 

Built on Python, the system uses advanced libraries such as OpenCV for computer vision and MediaPipe for accurate pose estimation. These technologies help interpret the user’s hand movements and translate them into precise steering commands within the game. 

Bhopal native Khan said he started exploring Python language and coding during the Covid-19 lockdown. 

"I first thought of building a software to control car racing games using hand gestures and learnt how to generate features extracted from images. I believe one is bound to build new things when one needs it in real time. I played games since childhood and this is something I felt the need for as a gamer," he told DH. 

Beyond gaming, Khan is channelling his talents in developing a sign language translation model using TensorFlow and Python. This model aims to facilitate communication for people with hearing impairments and the hard-of-hearing community, he said.