philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

A New Chip to Bring 3-D Gesture Control to Smartphones

This week, Microchip Technology, a large U.S. semiconductor manufacturer, says it is releasing the first controller that uses electrical fields to make 3-D measurements.

The low-power chip makes it possible to interact with mobile devices and a host of other consumer electronics using hand gesture recognition, which today is usually accomplished with camera-based sensors. A key limitation is that it only recognizes motions, such as a hand flick or circular movement, within a six-inch range.

Perhaps most interesting, the controller could easily go into electronics that don’t have a camera, including car dashboards, keyboards, light switches, or a music docking station.

The controller comes with the ability to recognize 10 predefined gestures, including wake-up on approach, position tracking, and various hand flicks, but it can also be programmed to respond to custom movements.

Read the full story here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/507161/a-new-chip-to-bring-3-d-gesture-control-to-smartphones/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_source=newsletter-daily-all&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20121113