Startup Flutter brings Kinect-like gesture controls to your Mac

A new company supported by start-up incubator Y Combinator is showing off its solution for bringing some gesture magic to your Mac. Flutter will give you a taste of Kinect via your Webcam and its downloadable app.

You can currently sign up to be alerted when Flutter is publicly available on the company's website. Instead of requiring separate hardware, a la Microsoft's Kinect, Flutter makes use of the Mac's built-in Webcam to recognize simple gestures your hands make between one and six feet away. Right now, it can control navigation for iTunes and Spotify, with Netflix and YouTube support slated next.

Flutter isn't designed for large movements that could be used in playing games, which limits it to navigational duties, but you don't need an expensive piece of hardware to make use of it. The company says it plans to make money by licensing the technology to software companies that want to integrate Flutter into their apps.

Wired's Steve Levy speculates that Flutter makes a good takeover target for Apple, especially since its technology could presumably be rolled into OS X and combat Microsoft bringing Kinect to Windows. In the meantime, mouse-free control of music on your Mac will soon be just a download away.