Ever wished you could pause a video without scrambling for the keyboard? That's exactly what this project does. Wave your hand, and your video pauses. Push it closer, and the volume goes up. It's a simple but satisfying build using an Arduino and a couple of ultrasonic sensors — no fancy hardware, no expensive components.

There are two HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors mounted side by side — one tracking your left hand, one tracking your right. The Arduino constantly measures how far away each hand is, figures out what gesture you're making, and fires off a label like "Play/Pause" or "Vup" over USB serial. A small Python script running on your computer picks that up and presses the right keyboard shortcut on your behalf.

[Left Hand] ←→ [HC-SR04 #1]
                              → [Arduino Uno] → USB Serial → [Python Script] → Media Controls
[Right Hand] ←→ [HC-SR04 #2]
]

It's a clean split: the Arduino handles the sensing, Python handles the computer side.

Nothing too exotic — you can probably grab all of this for under $15 if you don't already have it.

Both sensors share the Arduino's 5V and GND rails on the breadboard.

Once it's running, here's how to actually use it:

The "lock" gestures take a beat to activate — hold your hand steady for a moment first, and the Arduino will confirm it's locked before watching for your next move.

Open Gesture_Control_code.ino in the Arduino IDE, plug in your Arduino, pick the right Board and Port under the Tools menu, and hit Upload. That's the hardware side done.

pip install pyserial pyautogui

Open Gesture_control.py and update the serial port to match what your Arduino is using:

# Windows

ArduinoSerial = serial.Serial('COM3', 9600)


# macOS / Linux

ArduinoSerial = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', 9600)

Not sure which port? Check Tools → Port in the Arduino IDE — it'll be listed there.

python Gesture_control.py

Click on your video player to make sure it's focused, and you're good to go. Start gesturing!

├── Gesture_Control_code.ino   # Arduino firmware — reads sensors and sends gesture labels over serial
├── Gesture_control.py         # Python script — listens on serial and triggers keyboard shortcuts
└── README.md
d

Can't connect to the Arduino / port not found Double-check that the COM port in Gesture_control.py matches what the Arduino IDE shows. It changes depending on which USB port you plug into.

Gestures aren't being detected Make sure there's nothing between your hands and the sensors — even a cluttered desk can cause false readings. If you want to see what the sensors are actually measuring, uncomment the debug Serial.print lines in the .ino file and open the Serial Monitor.

Keyboard shortcuts aren't working Your video player needs to be the active window. The Python script sends keystrokes to whatever's in focus, so if another window is on top, the commands will go there instead..

Open source — take it, tweak it, make it your own.