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LG's MWC teaser hints at phones with more touchless gestures
Besides the potential of foldable/expandable devices and 5G, what else can we expect to see at Mobile World Congress next month? According to LG's invite to its Premiere event on February 24th, we'll say "Goodbye Touch." The video clip shows a hand summoning and dismissing text with a simple wave, similar to things we've seen from tech like Samsung's Air Gesture that arrived in the Galaxy S4. Presumably LG's implementation will be far more advanced than what we experienced back in 2013, but we'll have to wait and see.
The iPhone 8 reportedly swaps the home button for gesture controls
The folks over at Bloomberg got their hands on some images of the next iPhone as well as some information from people familiar with the new model. Some of the features confirmed in their report were already known or at least heavily suspected, but there are also some new details about how the phone will function without the home button.
Android Wear's latest preview opens gestures to other apps
Are you the sort to treat your wrist as a test bed for Google software? If so, today's a grand day. Google has released its second developer preview of Android Wear 2.0, and it packs more than just some extra spit and polish. It now supports wrist gestures in third-party apps, to start. While you'll need apps to take advantage of this, it raises hope that your favorite fitness or messaging tool won't require a free hand (or your voice) for navigation.
Make your own hand-controlled robot with a crowdfunded kit
If you've ever wanted to craft a robot that you can control with your hands, you now have a chance of making it a reality: Ziro has started a crowdfunding campaign for its gesture-controlled robot kit. Pledge at least $149 and you'll get both the centerpiece Smart Glove as well as enough parts to build an automaton you can steer with your fingers. It can get expensive to build exactly what you want (a Pro kit is at least $229), but every bundle promises easy construction and smartphone app integration -- you won't have to have a deep understanding of robotics to make this work. If all goes well, you'll get your Ziro hardware in January.
Leap Motion is perfecting natural hand gestures for VR
As immersive as virtual reality can be, you're still left holding awkwardly shaped controllers in your hands -- a reminder that you're very much in the real world. But what if instead of hitting A to move a rock, you could just use your hands? That's exactly what Leap Motion, known for its hand-gesture control sensors, has been working on for the past few years. Most recently, it's been working on something called the Interaction Engine, which aims to take things a step further: to make picking up objects in the digital world feel as natural as it does in the real one.
Researchers use Myo muscle-sensing wearable for prosthetics
Controlling Call of Duty or flying a drone isn't all the Myo armband can do. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are employing the muscle-sensing wearable for a different application: prosthetics. With two of the gadgets, a patient is able control a prosthetic arm when he thinks about it. The pair of Myo bands on the upper arm read the electric impulses from muscle movement and wirelessly transmit them to a nearby computer. That computer determines what movement he is trying to make and tells the prosthetic arm to complete the task.
Volkswagen announces e-Golf Touch with gesture controls
Not nearly as exciting as the electric BUDD-e microbus the company introduced a new version of it's electric compact, the e-Golf Touch at CES. Odd that it's called the Touch because the feature that makes it different from the regular e-Golf is gestures. Maybe e-Golf Swipe didn't play well with focus groups. Regardless, the car comes with a 9.2-inch configurable home screen and wireless charging for everyone in the car.
Sphero's Force Band will let you control BB-8 with gestures
Sphero's smartphone-controlled BB-8 droid (from the new Star Wars film, of course) is one of the cooler toys we've seen. The company's looking to add an extra level of interactivity to the droid by means of a wristband that'll let you roll it around with gestures. The so-called Force Band will be sold separately so that existing BB-8 owners can add gesture controls to their droid when it comes out in the fall of this year.
BMW to show how gestures will control the cars of the future
BMW, like a number of other automakers, is keen on showing off its latest tech at CES. This year will be no different as the company plans to demo its AirTouch concept in Las Vegas next week. AirTouch is but one feature of BMW's Vision Car that aims "to demonstrate what the interior and the user interface of the future might look like." More specifically, AirTouch allows passengers to control the car's features with gestures rather than having to interact with a touchscreen. There's still a display that shows navigation, entertainment and communication info, but sensors track hand gestures in the space between the dash and the rear-view mirror rather than requiring taps on the screen.
ZTE's latest smartwatch packs style and gesture control
ZTE isn't just counting on a high-end smartphone to convince you that it means business. The company has taken the wraps off of the Axon Watch, a smartwatch that's miles above last year's clunky BlueWatch in both design and features. Besides looking like a conventional watch that you might actually enjoy putting on your wrist, it's packing a wearable version of Tencent OS (nope, no Android Wear here) with both perks like gesture control as well as basics like phone calls, messaging and fitness tracking.
Synaptics' touch-sensitive space bar speeds up your writing
Your smartphone's keyboard has loads of shortcuts that help you write faster, but the keyboard on your big, brawny PC doesn't. Seems illogical, doesn't it? Synaptics doesn't think it makes sense, either. The input firm is launching SmartBar, a technology that turns your keyboard's space bar into a touch-sensitive surface for gesture controls. You can swipe your thumb to select text, pinch to zoom in and program five "logical buttons" that perform macros, such as formatting text or building units in a favorite real-time strategy game. This might only save you a couple of seconds reaching for your mouse, but Synaptics is betting that those little time savings will add up.
He made Tom Cruise 'forget the mouse.' Now it's our turn.
In a way, John Underkoffler's like Hollywood's own Wizard of Oz. He's the man behind the curtain responsible for infusing blockbuster fantasy with real-world tech. He created the futuristic UI in Minority Report, worked on the timeline for Hulk's transformation and found a Soviet fusion reactor to blow up Stark Industries in Iron Man. He also recently received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for his work as an interface designer both in films and in the real world.
Android Wear will reportedly let you navigate with a flick of the wrist
Right now, the only ways to get around Android Wear are to use your voice or swipe your fingers. What if you'd rather not talk to your smartwatch, and don't have a hand free? You may have another option soon. A source for The Verge claims that a future Android Wear update will add gesture control -- you'll just have to flick your wrist to switch through cards, so you can check the weather even if your hands are full. There's also talk of WiFi support in the next release, so you won't have to stay close to your phone to get alerts if you have a suitably equipped wearable. It's not certain just when these upgrades would hit (assuming they're real, of course), but they could be worth the wait if you're a Google watch devotee.
Muscle-sensing Myo gesture armband will be on Amazon this quarter
About a year after getting our first taste of the Myo, Thalmic Labs has announced that it's reaching out to the masses by way of Amazon this quarter. As with its pre-order on the company's website, this muscle-sensing gesture control armband will be available for $199. But even before that, Thalmic Labs has already sold 50,000 pre-orders (with about half of them shipped to buyers so far), which is a nice nod of approval to some of the use case examples showed off by Thalmic Labs and its several partners.
The one (gesture control) ring to rule them all
While many companies are tinkering with lasers, ultrasound and even arm muscles for touchless gesture control on portable devices and desktop PCs, Japan's 16Lab just wants to put a pretty ring on you. The yet-to-be-named titanium wearable is designed by the award-winning Manabu Tago, and it features ALPS Electric's tiny module (5.05 x 5.65 x 2.5 mm) that somehow manages to pack Bluetooth Smart radio, movement sensor, environment sensor plus antennas -- there's a video demo after the break. Despite its custom-made 10mAh lithium polymer cell, 16Lab is aiming for at least 20 hours of battery life. This is possible mainly because you have to place your thumb on the top pad (with the ring's wedge pointing away from the user) to enable the sensors -- upon which point the ring vibrates to confirm that it's active. It's then just a matter of waving and tilting your hand until you're done.
HP's Leap Motion keyboard to be sold separately for $99
The Leap Motion controller is currently present in three forms: a $74.99 standalone dongle, inside the special edition HP Envy 17 laptop and inside an HP keyboard. The dongle -- with almost half a million units sold since launch -- and the keyboard are obviously the only ways to add this hand motion sensor externally, but the latter option was limited to select HP computers to begin with. Well, not any more. At Computex, Leap Motion told Engadget that as of this month, you'll be able to purchase said keyboard for about $99, and it'll work on any Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC as long as you have the software installed -- be it the current version or the free V2 update with skeletal tracking coming this summer.
Connected car model gives us a glimpse of the automobiles of the future
Your dream car is (choose one): A.) A bumper-to-bumper candy-color paint-job, ostrich seats and 22-inch chrome rims. B.) One with everything connected cars can offer, such as in-car 4G LTE and WiFi. If you chose B, then you have to see the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association's connected car demo. In addition to having an internet connection, it also features wireless charging capability, 360-degree proximity sensors, as well as (we're saving the best for last here) gesture control and anti-drunk driving technology. We assume the car has an onboard breathalyzer of some sort, as you wouldn't even be able to start it if you've had one too many.
Samsung shows a smartwatch concept you control by waving your hands
Touchscreens on smartwatches are limited by their very nature; there's only so much you can fit on a tiny piece of glass. However, Samsung might overcome that surface area limit if it ever implements a recently published patent application. Its smartwatch concept would let you perform relatively complex tasks just by waving your hands in front of a built-in camera. You could send content to a TV just by flicking your hand, for example, or select something by pointing your finger.
Mirama hopes to replace your smartphone with a headset, your camera button with a finger gesture
Mirama wants do away with the the camera button on your smartphone. In fact, don't even get the smartphone out to begin with. Its prototype headset lets you frame and take a picture using your hands and its built-in camera. No buttons, no vocal cues, not even a wink. Other gestures, registered by the camera sensor, add the ability to confirm or cancel (thumbs up and down, respectively) while you can even attempt a hand-written message ... if you have the right level of motor control. (Our own gestured penmanship during a quick demo proved we didn't.) The cameras on the left and right, meanwhile, offer a constant stream of what you'd be looking at if you weren't wearing the headset. Gestures (well, your hands) then appear in bright cyan on top of the video feed.
Lumus and eyeSight deal brings gesture control to DK-40 smart glasses hand-on
Imagine a pair of Smart Glasses that you didn't need to fondle just to dismiss notifications, or worse, speak out loud to like a crazy. It's that exact thought that brought Lumus and eyeSight together. If you know each company's respective products, you don't have to imagine too hard what's going on, but if you don't? Basically Lumus makes a Google Glass-like product that has a see-through display in one lens that shows notifications, calendar entries and so on. EyeSight makes software that allows gesture control through existing cameras (like that one in your laptop or phone), and has, for example, just penned a deal with Oppo that sees the software baked into its phones' native controls (wave to browse the gallery, etc.). The collaboration between Lumus and eyeSight was announced here at MWC, and we just swung by to take a look. The Lumus glasses we saw back at CES are unchanged, but this time around, you can dismiss email and social media notifications (for example) with a simple flick, or pull out reminders and calendar entries from the side with a swipe. We were mighty impressed with how well it worked, and how fluid and responsive the interaction was. Of course, this is only a simple demonstration of what is possible, but it's not hard to imagine more creative applications for it further down the line (games, media control, etc.). Of course, some might argue that waving around in the empty space in front of you is no less conspicuous than talking to yourself, but once you've tried it for yourself, we think you'll agree it's a much easier way to interact with a HUD than an out-of-sight touchpad or unreliable voice command. Lumus still hasn't confirmed commercial plans for its glasses, so it could be a while before you decide for yourself. Steve Dent contributed to this report.