Since the entry of the Kinect system into the videogame scene, the idea of 'understanding each other with gestures' with an electronic device has taken hold in the market and in the collective imagination. Without keyboard, without contact directed between our hands and a computer, a mobile phone, a household appliance, we will be free to integrate the presence of technology into daily activities.
A new patent introduces a change that can be decisive in diffusion of gesture controllers: this is the first system based on electric fields.
[highlight]What is it about? – [/highlight] Developed by Microchip Inc, the system (called gestic) does not use a video camera to track the movements of our hands, but create one 'map' of our gestures through the diffusion of an electric field. The dynamics (you will see it from the video) appears quite precise for this stage of development, and allows the current state to 'turn the page' when reading an ebook, to give simple commands with circular gestures or turn off a device creating a wave with your hand.
I ask myself and say: but won't yet another magnetic or electric field stationed within our range of action hurt? Waiting for important confirmations (or denied) by science, I note that GestIC is a rather weak field, 'only diffused' within a radius of 16 centimetres. For this reason it consumes a lot less energy than current systems, and is preparing to be an excellent solution for mobile devices, which are always hungry for energy.
When?
At Microchip they say that this controller will find wide application in a wide range of products already starting from the last months of 2013.
Do I say 'bye bye' with my hand and close this article automatically without touching the keyboard?
It's still early. It's still early :)
Here is the press release (in English): https://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/press-release/microchips-new-gestic-technolo.html
