Google's April Fools' Day Joke May Be On Google

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

Imagine being able to write an email by getting out of your chair and - say, waving your hands. To send a message, pretend you're licking a stamp and putting it on an imaginary envelope. Well, Google announced just that on Friday, calling the breakthrough Gmail Motion.

Unidentified Woman: Our bodies did not evolve to sit at a desk in a rigid position all day. And it is my feeling that Gmail Motion will free the regular user.

NORRIS: Well, not so fast. The Google announcement was part of an elaborate April Fools' Day prank. But researchers at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies may have the last laugh. They've taken the Kinect sensor from Microsoft's Xbox 360, and hooked it up to Google's Gmail to make gesture-driven email a reality.

In a video they posted online, you can watch someone actually composing an email using body motion.

(Soundbite of video)

Unidentified Man: And so now, finally, the last step is, I want to send off this message. So I'm going to lick the stamp and send it. That's it.

NORRIS: The technology itself is still considered experimental, so don't throw out your keyboard or your office chair just yet.

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