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Control Your Apps Without Your Finger
VincenzoRomano writes "You won't need to swipe your fingers over smallish touch screens. You'll move your arms, hands and fingers (or whatever else applies) in the air or shake the handset. The phone camera(s), the G-sensor, the compass and so on will be used by a software to understand the gestures and to translate them into control commands. This breakthrough comes from a company called GestureTek, a non-startup company in this field." I love the idea of my screen no longer being smudged. I hate the idea of people doing this on a bus.
You'll notice they mention arms, hands AND fingers in the full summary.
Meaning it will also read the gestures of your fingers.
Making it essentially a non-touch touch screen.
Making it essentially a non-touch touch screen.
So thus negating the whole point of having a touchscreen in the first place?
No, certainly not. This is just the next logical progression of mouse/pointer -> touch screen -> gestures above the screen. Too many people here are thinking "Wii," but that's not it: think "iPhone" without having to touch the screen. I'm no Apple fanboy, but I think Apple has already foreseen this by adding the G-force sensor in the iPhone/iPod Touch; I think they just haven't moved on it yet because they're waiting to see what other vendors are coming up with. I predict the next iteration of the iPhone will include technology along these lines.
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prior art indeed, funny to see the same things reinvented again and again over the decades. Having worked in CADD/CAM since 70s, seen at trade shows all manner of gesture sensors, 3D viewing systems, gloves and other body position transducers...