[shadedtriangle]

It's because the algorithm is easy to implement and efficient in terms of compute usage to match a gesture. It's a "cheap and easy" recognizer, a $1 recognizer. The name has spawned a whole host of similarly named papers which you can see on their "impact" page https://depts.washington.edu/acelab/proj/dollar/impact.html.

[thomastjeffery]

That doesn't help the ambiguity at all.

You have to know contextually that the dollar sign and the digit are part of the name before you can read any sentence that contains the name. That guarantees that you will be confused at least once!

[lelandfe]

Here is that terrible confusion: “Is that a price or a name? Ah, a name”

[thomastjeffery]

Then you continue: "You can't use $1 to..."

The ambiguity never leaves. It's an absolutely unnecessary overhead that demands more than any other name I have ever encountered.

[sonicanatidae]

Yeah, but someone in marketing got a high-5 for being clever, so all other considerations are moot.

and yes, I agree with you, 100%.

[daynthelife]

`awk` users hate this one simple trick!

[michaelsalim]

That's funny cause I assumed this was expensive the other day and didn't check it out. "$1 for each recognition? Not worth the effort to even check it out"