Topological Media Lab was established in 2001, among other things, to study continuous (in time and space), free-hand, improvised gesture with no a prior schema.
Our time has come! —
Zamborlin, Bevilaqua, Gillies, D’Inverno. Fluid gesture interaction design: applications of continuous recognition for the design of modern gestural interfaces (2015)
Prior art:
Resistance Is Fertile: Gesture and Agency in the Field of Responsive Media (2002)
—, Serita, Fantauzza, Dow, Iachello, Fiano, Berzowska, Caravia, Reitberger, Fistre. Demonstrations of Expressive Softwear and Ambient Media Ubicomp (2003)
—, Serita, Dow, Iachello, Fistre. Gestural Audio Instruments (2003) (PDF)
—, Gill. Gesture and Response in Field-Based Performance (2005)
Van Nort, Gauthier, —, Wanderley, Extraction of Gestural Meaning from a Fabric-Based Instrument (2007)
—, Calligraphic Video: Using the Body's Intuition of Matter (2010) (PDF)