Google's New Interface Technology Looks To Make Touching Glass Obsolete

 Interfaces  

Google's Project Soli is a new interaction technology that uses radar sensors that can accurately track sub-millimeter motions at high speed. It fits onto a chip, can be produced at scale and built into small devices and everyday objects.

Google’s Project Soli could make touching your Gorilla Glass wrapped device seem like using a rotary dial telephone does to us today. With the ability to track minute hand and and finger movements, all in a tiny sensor, Soli seems ideal for interacting with the plethora of ever-smaller devices and screens.

"The hand can both embody a virtual tool, and it can also be acting on that virtual tool at the same time."

Based on the video below, from Google Advanced Technologies Products (ATAP) group, the technology could be even more accurate and minutely precise than Leap Motion's system.

"The hand can both embody a virtual tool, and it can also be acting on that virtual tool at the same time," says Project Soli Design Lead, Carsten Schwesig.

Soli allows users to control devices using natural hand motions, including incredibly fine motions accurately and precisely.  Because it is a radar device, the sensor can even work through materials like a table or cloth.

Haptic feedback is also part of the interaction, with your hand naturally touching itself. Soli uses your hand as its own user interface for gesture like turning a knob, or scrolling between your thumb and forefinger on an invisible, virtual device.

"Radar gas some unique properties when compared to cameras for example," says Emre Karagozler, a hardware engineer with Project Soli. "It has very high positional accuracy, which means that you can sense the tiniest motions."

Soli may be ideal for small devices, like smartwatches and other wearables, especially since it works through surfaces and at a distance.

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A key development of making Soli was the push to make the hardware smaller and faster

The tiny interaction sensor runs at 60GHz and can capture motions of your fingers at resolutions and speeds that haven’t been possible before—up to 10,000 frames per second. To get there, the team had to reinterpret traditional radar, which bounces a signal from an object and provides a single return ping.

To capture the complexity of hand movements at close range, Soli illuminates the whole hand with a broad radar beam, and estimates the hand configuration by analyzing changes in the returned signal over time.

Soli is being targeted for broad availability soon, in a form factor suitable for incorporation into wearable devices like smartwatches. By the end of this year your next smartphone could have this new interface technology.




SOURCE  TechCrunch

By 33rd Square

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