Futuristic remote control to arrive in 2007

He who bears the ring controls the universe, and the TV.

Early next year, at least one undisclosed consumer electronics company will release the Loop, a ring-shaped remote control that lets you navigate by pointing at icons on the TV screen, rather than scrolling and clicking through listings. So instead of trolling through seven pages of offerings on Freeview to get to The Terminal on FilmFour, you point the remote at the 'Movies' icon and then click on the thumbnail of the movie poster showing Tom Hanks in an overcoat.

The device translates hand motions -- via sensors that track the physical forces behind a user's hand motions in the air -- into cursor movements on the screen.

The technology behind the Loop was created by Hillcrest Labs, a company founded in 2001. Although it has attracted funding from firms such as New Enterprise Associates, it has not landed deals with consumer electronics makers until now.

While it would not disclose the names of the companies that have licensed its technology, Hillcrest said that the licencees are major manufacturers. These manufacturers will sell their own versions of the Loop and also incorporate Hillcrest's technology into game controllers and other devices, the company announced this week.

Pointing as a way to control consumer electronics, game consoles and other products is going to be a growing theme in 2007. One of the chief features of Nintendo's Wii game console is a handheld controller that you point at the screen to control the cursor. Meanwhile, GeoVector has come up with a software application for mobile phones that lets users point their phone at a building to determine the name of the building, the tenants and other information. Japanese carriers are now starting to roll out services and phones based on GeoVector's technology. Hillcrest's Loop functions in a similar manner to the Wii's controller.

"It really opens up a lot of things," said Danny Briere, chief executive of analysts firm TeleChoice. "Imagine if you were on Amazon. You could just point and buy stuff."

Hillcrest's technology consists of two parts: a ring-shaped remote with two buttons and a scrollwheel, and software that turns reams of TV listings into thumbnail menus. The idea is to provide more information at once, but in a natural, intuitive manner.

"As soon as we come out of the womb, we point, and after that we see quite a bit," said chief executive Daniel Simpkins in an interview earlier this year. "We search with peripheral vision. You can see thumbnails of 125 movies at once."

Simpkins, who years earlier founded a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) company called Salix Technologies, added that cable, TV and music companies won't have to adapt their current menus to Hillcrest's technology themselves. "We ingest the metadata and convert the XML data into visual data," he said.