fbpx
Carriers

Microsoft is testing a phone that reacts without touching the screen

In a recent YouTube video put up by Microsoft Research, the tech company displays innovative technology its been working on lately: a smartphone that doesn’t require users to actually touch the screen to perform certain tasks.

The video, called “Pre-Touch Sensing for Mobile Interaction,” shows a prototype phone that senses how hard a user grips the device, as well as when and where user’s fingers are approaching it to adapt the interface.

It was released along with an accompanying research paper.

One potential use showed in the video is a overlay menu that appears on video or gaming content when a user hovers their finger above the screen, and goes away when the user retracts their finger.

“I think it has huge potential for the future of mobile interaction,” said project lead Ken Hinckley in a blog post, “And I say this as one of the very first people to explore the possibilities of sensors on mobile phones, including the now ubiquitous capability to sense and auto-rotate the screen orientation.”

Microsoft’s pre-touch feature is an interesting contrast to Apple’s 3D touch feature. Wherein 3D touch requires users to press and hold to “peek” at the options available to them, pre-touch gives users a glimpse of what’s possible before they even make the decision to touch the screen.

Related reading: Microsoft Canada offers free Lumia 950 with purchase of Lumia 950 XL

[source]Microsoft Research[/source]

Related Articles

Comments