Dr. Who Sonic Screwdriver Turned Into TV Remote With Gesture Controls

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to unlock the mysteries of the universe and to fix stuff on the popular and extremely long running British TV series Dr. Who and now that sonic screwdriver has been turned into a gesture-based remote control.

Designs for the clever remote couldn’t include a bunch of buttons or the screwdriver wouldn’t look like the actual sonic screwdriver used by the doctor. For that reason the remotes creators instead chose to base the remote around a very specific set of hand movements. To control the remote users push, tap and twist the device to form commands.

While the remote offers a unique way to control your TV there are some limitations, for example since it relies on movement you can’t hold it or place it next to you on the couch for fearing of moving the remote and triggering a command.

The remote does offer one cool feature in which you can hold it next to your existing remotes and then program gesture based commands into a “special mode” for the remote.

Mashable had the chance to play with the remote and they said the remote control programming method is “tedious” but “quite easy.”

At this time the remote allows for 13 total gestures to be programmed into 3 different “memory banks” which means users can program 39 commands.

While you probably won’t use the Dr. Who sonic screwdriver remote for all of your programming needs I could definitely see using it every single time I turn on the BBC which for me is all the time.

Here’s a Mashable video that shows off the sonic screwdriver remote in action: