Recent market research indicates that the number of wireless computer keyboards is rapidly increasing. We can control certain functions of our computer and/or laptop by using a motion that we call Leap Motion. These laptops are rather expensive, but they are cool. Let us use the Power of Arduino and Python to provide Gesture Control for our Laptop/Computer. A VLC media player will be controlled based on the position of our hand using Ultrasonic sensors. When you are familiar with this project, however, you are able to do anything just by changing a few lines of code and manipulate your favourite application in your favourite way.

Python has already been used in several Arduino projects before. Assuming you've already set up Python and its serial library, and have executed a few

basic projects like blinking LEDs, this is what you can expect. Don’t be alarmed, here’s a tutorial you can use to learn how to program your led directly using Arduino and Python. Please ensure Python and the Python Serial library are installed before moving on.

The project's concept is extremely straightforward. Our approach is to place two Ultrasonic sensors on our monitor and use Arduino to read the distance between it and our hand. We will then do what the distance reading tells us, based on it. pyautogui is an open-source Python library that allows us to perform actions on our computer. A USB connection is used to connect Arduino to the computer and send commands. Python is run on the computer and Python will read the read data and subsequently perform an action based on the read data.

The Arduino will connect to the two Ultrasonic sensors and control the computer with hand gestures. Knowing that US sensors require 5 Volts of Voltage, Arduino's on-board voltage regulators are powering them. Besides being connected to the PC/Laptop for powering the board and serial communication, the Arduino can also be used as a computer control system. The connection should look like this once it's finished. You can use your own creativity to stick it to your monitor but I used double sided tape to do so. We can then begin the programming process after securing the device in place.

For example, we can program five actions to be controlled by gestures by reading the distance value and adjusting our program accordingly. Action 1: In VLC player, the video should Play/Pause when both hands are placed in proximity to the sensor. Action 2: A video should Fast Forward one step when the right hand is held up in front of the sensor at a certain distance.

Action 3: At a particular distance from the sensor, the video should Rewind one step when the left hand is placed before it. Action 4: When your right hand is placed up in front of the camera at a certain distance, and then your hand is moved towards the camera, and you move away, the video should fast forward and rewind. Action 5: After placing the left hand close to the sensor, it should increase the video volume and when it is moved away from the sensor, it should decrease the volume. Here, we will see how the program is built to accomplish the above actions. So, just like any other program, we define the I/O pins first as you can see above. Digital pin 2, 3, 4, and 5 are used to power the two US sensors which are powered by +5V pins. The Arduino's trigger pins are input pins, and the Arduino's echo pins are output pins. Serial communication takes place with a baud rate of 9600 for the Arduino and Python programs.