<p>Techniques described herein enable a computing device to detect a user hand gesture in near field using less expensive hardware by capturing enough information in coarse resolution. Furthermore, techniques described herein detect an object, such as a hand by characterizing the object without fully reconstructing the object. In one embodiment, embodiments of the invention performed by the computing device detect the number of unfurled fingers passing through the detectable region of the field of view of the detection surface of a computing device and the direction of the movement of the user's hand. The computing device may determine a user command in response to detecting the user gesture and provide feedback to the user.</p>
