With touchscreen blowing up the mobile space, we gotta wonder, what’s on the horizon. Sure, touchscreens are hot now, but what technology will take the industry by storm in the coming years? From this recently published patent application, it seems that Samsung’s betting on gesture-based controls rising to meet the call of future mobile phone interfaces.
The Samsung Instinct already uses motion-tracking technology to enable the user to pan around a webpage, so it wouldn’t be too far a stretch to imagine that Samsung is betting on gesture-based controls. The USPTO patent application, entitled “Hand gesture recognition input system and method for a mobile phone,” details a method whereby the camera on a cellphone would be used to track hand gestures and translate that movement into commands on your mobile phone.
For instance, point your finger to activate the on-screen pointer, or move your hand to navigate between virtual workspaces.
The next time you see some crazed maniac waving their hands at their mobile phone, just remember, they may just be ahead of the curve. On the other hand, they’re just crazy, so give them some space.
[Via: Ubergizmo]