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Xiaomi's remote wireless charging powers up your phone from across the room
Xiaomi is touting its remote wireless charging Mi Air Charge Technology, which can power up a compatible phone from several meters away, and through objects.
A touchless 2020
In 2020, the technology industry pushed products geared towards minimizing, sanitizing or tracking physical touch. Which of these innovations will we keep?
Jaguar Land Rover shows off AI-powered 'no-touch touchscreen' for cars
The AI system uses sensors and context to figure out which button you want to tap.
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.
Insurers increasingly use apps and drones instead of agents
Hobbyists aren't the only ones using the phone and drone cameras to explore the world in new ways, as insurance companies are increasingly opting for "virtual" or "touchless" handling of claims. The Wall Street Journal cites the 2017 Future of Claims Study survey by LexisNexis Risk Solutions (PDF) which found that 38 percent of insurers don't send employees out for physical inspections in at least some situations. One story mentioned says that Lemonade Insurance settled and paid out a claim in just three seconds using the AI bot connected to its app.
PMD's Nimble UX platform gives computers super accurate touchless gesture controls
Most of us are familiar with touchless gesture controls, thanks to the efforts of Leap Motion, SoftKinetic, PrimeSense and others. PMD, however, is a name you may not be familiar with, despite the fact that the German firm has been building some of the most accurate and robust depth sensing technology in the world for around a decade. The reason for its low profile? PMD's technology has been used almost exclusively in industrial and automotive settings... until now. The company began exploring consumer products back in 2009, and we saw its first consumer reference design sensor, the CamBoard Pico, last year at Computex. Now, the company's back with its sensor camera and a new gesture control platform for both Mac and PC, called Nimble UX. Nimble has three parts -- the first, as mentioned, is a depth-sensing camera. Next is the Nimble PMD SDK that gives developers access to the depth information gathered by the sensor and tools to help them build gesture-based applications. Finally, there's the Nimble dashboard, which is a plug-and-play bit of software that implements touchless gesture controls for Windows 8. We got to see Nimble UX for ourselves and chat with the folks from PMD to see what sets their technology apart from the competition, so join us after the break to learn more.
Elliptic Labs develops touchless gesture control for Windows 8, assuages our fear of fingerprints (video)
The rise of touchscreen Windows 8 PCs isn't a happy occasion for anyone who's been carefully keeping PC screens clean: years of slapping wayward hands have been undermined by an interface that practically begs us to smudge up the display. While we suspect it's really aiming for ease of use, Elliptic Labs may have heard that subliminal cry for cleanliness while producing its new Windows 8 Gesture Suite, a touchless control system built for a very touch-focused platform. The company's newest take on ultrasound control can pick up 3D hand motions near the display and invoke all of Windows 8's edge swipes and scrolling without the extra effort (or grease) of putting skin to screen. The method doesn't need a one-to-one map of the screen and can work even in pitch darkness, which leaves adoption mostly dependent on hardware support rather than any wary users -- despite immediate availability for the SDK, PCs need extra microphones and transducers to drop the touch layer. If computers with the Gesture Suite arrive in the hoped-for 12 to 14 months, though, we can get back to obsessing over a fingerprint-free LCD while saving some physical strain in the process.
Hands-on with wireless, ultrasonic stylus and touchless gestures at MWC (video)
This isn't the first time you've heard of EPOS or XTR, but it's been quite some time since we've checked in with either of the outfits. So, imagine our surprise as we stumbled on new developments from each company as we perused the Texas Instruments booth at MWC. In the case of EPOS, we're shown a stylus that, in addition to offering traditional physical touch input, also allows users to interact with a device via ultrasound. The system is built upon TI's OMAP4 platform and requires that four microphones be placed at the corners of the screen. In this demonstration, we're shown how users can manipulate objects on a 3D plane via the Z-axis by pulling the pen away from the display. Next, we're shown a new application for the touchless gesturing system that XTR first debuted back in 2010. In this scenario, it's demonstrated how tablet owners could use the front-facing camera (at merely QVGA resolution) to flip through pages of a cookbook without worry of getting ingredients on the device. The concept software was developed by a French outfit known as Stonetrip, and also allows users to zoom and pan through the pages. You'll find demonstrations of each technology in a video after the break.
Elliptic Labs demonstrates its touchless user interface for iPad (with video)
As promised a while back, we got to chat with Elliptic Labs here at CES, and CEO Stian Aldrin walked us through the touchless gesture technology his 15-person Norway-based company is developing as a prototype. The whole thing is based on ultrasound, it turns out -- a small speaker kicks out frequencies higher than the ear can hear, and a set of microphones listens in on the reflections, using an algorithim to calculate where your hand is at as you wave it through the air. The result is a gesture-based control system for touchscreen devices, but without the actual touch. Aldrin told us that the system is already in use in a Norwegian hospital, where surgeons control touchscreen tablets without having to take their sanitized gloves off during surgery. Currently, the system only allows for a few simple gestures (swiping up and down, or left and right), but that's just a limitation of the demo units Elliptic Labs has created. Potentially, such a system could not only recognize the placement and speed of your hand passing by (and indeed, one of the demos in the CES booth could monitor both proximity to the screen and speed, flipping on-screen content faster if you pushed your hand by faster), but it could also calculate multiple points of movement, doing things like multi-touch gestures in the air. You do have to be pretty close in to the screen to operate the device -- rather than a big cone like a Kinect, the system monitors a sphere around itself, so you've got to have your hand enter that sphere for it to register. But Elliptic (who already plan to be back at CES with an even bigger booth next year) suggests that the system could be used for lots of things, from quick music controls to car controls, or anything else where you need to make a touch-style gesture without actually touching the screen. We've got exclusive video after the break of Aldrin demoing a dock version of the system, connected via Wi-Fi to an off-the-shelf iPad running a custom-made app.
TI and XTR team up on touchless gesturing system for mobile devices
We've seen a few examples of touchless, gesture-based interfaces for mobile devices, but it looks like Texas Instruments might be closer than most to making it a reality -- it's just announced a partnership with Extreme Reality (also known as XTR) on a new gesture engine and framework specifically designed for its OMAP 4 platform. The two companies actually showed off such a system back at MWC earlier this year (check out a demo of ti after the break), but they've only just now made the partnership official, and they're promising plenty more advancements to come -- including the ability to not only recognize simple gestures, but even things like whole body movements and two-handed gestures. Head on past the break for the complete press release.
Microsoft hints at touchless Surface combining camera and transparent OLED (video)
We've always wondered whether Microsoft's multitouch table would actually ever arrive, dreaming of Minority Report hijinx all the while, but after seeing what the company's Applied Sciences Group is currently cooking up -- a touchless telepresence display -- we'd rather drop that antiquated pinch-to-zoom stuff in favor of what might be Surface's next generation. Starting with one of Samsung's prototype transparent OLED panels, Microsoft dropped a sub-two-inch camera behind the glass, creating a 3D gesture control interface that tracks your every move by literally seeing through the display. Combined with that proprietary wedge-shaped lens we saw earlier this month and some good ol' Johnny Chung Lee headtracking by the man himself, we're looking at one hell of a screen. Don't you dare read another word without seeing the prototype in a trifecta of videos after the break.
Tokyo University's touchless pointing system could wipe out smudgy screens
Touchscreens are wondrous things, but nobody likes smudges, and attempts to magically prevent oil from sticking haven't always found success. The proper solution might not be in fancy screen coatings but rather in removing the touchability together. Tokyo University has developed a system that uses a high-res camera to identify where a finger is in 3D space, so moving around and even air-clicking is detected. Multitouch seems to be right out at this point, and while the video after the break shows some rather deft looking typing on a dinky virtual keyboard, we're not entirely convinced that this is the most enjoyable or ergonomic way to interact with a cellphone. That said, if it makes the compulsive anti-smudge pantleg swipe motion a thing of the past, we'd give it a shot.
Elliptic Labs returns with more red hot touchless UI action
Elliptic Labs is back on the scene with another demo of its touchless UI. This time 'round the company's teamed up with Opera and presents us with a much more polished affair, not to mention a couple technical details. According to CEO Stian Aldrin, the device is based on ultrasound, tracks the hand itself (no reflector or sensor necessary), has a range of one foot, and has been designed to be either embedded in any electronic device (including a cellphone) or to connect to devices via USB. The company's current demo shows the technology being used to flip through photos in an Opera widget. Sure, a couple simple one-gesture commands isn't exactly "pulling all the stops," as far as a proof-of-concept goes, but we're looking forward to seeing what this company comes up with in the future. Peep for yourself after the break.
Nokia planning touch-less, gesture-controlled devices?
Usually when we're talking about Nokia and patents, a mention of Qualcomm can't be far behind. This time however, we're looking at something entirely less boring, fascinating even: ultra-sound sensors that detect hand gestures in the air in front of the device. Now the stretch. Nokia's chief designer, Alastair Curtis, was asked at a recent cocktail party why Nokia's N-series of multimedia devices have yet to see a multi-touch interface, Curtis replied, "We've not launched what we think is right for N-series in a touch product. You'll see in the coming months, years... what we feel is right." Curtis then elaborated, "Much as I'm talking to you now with gestures." Hmm. Ok Alastair, if such devices are in the chute, as long as they don't resemble the Palm V-series... we're cool. [Thanks, Pdexter]Read -- Patent application Read -- Curtis quotes
Elliptic Labs shows off touchless interface for 3D navigation
We've seen (though not felt, for obvious reasons) a few touchless interfaces before, but the latest development coming from Elliptic Labs is a real treat. Dubbed a "touchless human / machine user interface for 3D navigation," the firm has somehow figured out how to allow mere mortals to manipulate on-screen images without requiring any sort of funky gloves to be worn or a microchip to be installed in your fingertip. Sadly, little is said about the actual technology behind the magic, but don't worry, the video waiting after the jump should provide plenty of satisfaction.[Via Technabob]
