The gesture
tracking technology used by Tom Cruise’s precrime-fighting police officer in
Minority Report, the sci-fi movie set in 2054, has arrived a few years early. Tiny
radar chips by Infineon Technologies AG paired with algorithms by Alphabet Inc.’s
Google help devices detect the finest gestures from several meters away, the
German chipmaker says. The first gadgets to use the so-called Soli technology,
presented at Google I/O event on Friday, are prototypes of an LG Electronics
Inc. smartwatch and a Harman Kardon loudspeaker.
While
coarser gesture detection has been around for a bit, for example in gaming
consoles such as Wii, the new chips are more precise. They can detect fine hand
movements, like twisting your thumb and index finger when winding a watch from
several feet away. This tech will revolutionize human-machine interaction far
beyond the touchscreen of smartphones and even voice recognition. Since mankind
started using tools 2.4 million years ago, this is the first time tools adapt
to the user instead of the other way around.
Infineon, which teaming with Google
to sell its chips paired with the US company’s software from mid 2017, expects
the tech to provide new user experiences and inspire new devices, like the
iPhone did with the touchscreen technology. Paired with the right software the
radar chips are able to recognize people when they enter a room, detect finger
and hand movements up to 15 feet away, and help workers steer machines and
tools as industries digitize their factories.
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