JDSU bandpass filters and diode lasers are important parts of gesture-recognition devices currently being introduced to the $20B gaming market. Gesture recognition capabilities will enhance many home-entertainment, personal-computer, and medical applications and may soon become part of virtually all control mechanisms—replacing mice, keyboards, and remotes.

Playing a console game has meant manipulating some kind of mechanical control: a joystick, a deck, or perhaps a pressure-sensitive pad. Now, a user can simply move fingers, hands, arms, and indeed their entire body to respond to game situations. A gesture-recognition device knows exactly where a gamer started a swing, the angle of the swing, the speed, and the follow-through. A game console can then replicate the movement onscreen and calculate a response.

A gesture-recognition device senses three-dimensional movement by illuminating an area—a living room—with a particular wavelength of light. Capturing the reflection with a camera, it then interprets the data with sophisticated software and firmware. Today, these devices use JDSU infrared diode lasers to illuminate an area (using the energy of a single lightbulb) and JDSU bandpass filters to ensure that cameras only receive the infrared light used to track motion.

JDSU has been a leading provider of diode lasers to the communications and defense industries for over a decade. And, it is the world’s largest producer of optical filters for a wide variety of industries including consumer electronics, instrumentation, and aerospace. This ability to manufacture highest-quality, reliable products in high volumes delivers components at the right cost points for emerging consumer applications.