> A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.<p>> Zaphod waved a hand and the channel switched again.<p><a href="http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1329" rel="nofollow">http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1329</a>
FWIW this is from the ATAP group @ google, which is DARPA -> Motorola -> Google. <i>Not</i> Google X/moonshot/rollerblades.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_ATAP" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_ATAP</a><p>I've seen the tech first-hand and it's super cool.
Having spent a fair bit of time looking into applications for gesture inputs (kinect and leap motion mostly) I can tell you the hardest part by far will the user experience design. Gestures are extremely unintuitive on their own. Users need really clear prompts and/or training to understand how to use them. And if you want to innovate and create new and subtle gestures as your product evolves, it only gets worse.<p>The leap motion is already pretty good and has some useful applications, but it's still very, very niche. The Soli looks like a real evolution of the technology in terms of both precision and how embeddable it is, but it's going to have the same challenges in user adoption. I'd expect this kind of thing to get more traction in industry than in people's homes.
Video from Google about the technology (2015):
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0</a>
Interesting tidbit:<p><i>The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said in an order late on Monday that it would grant Google a waiver to operate the Soli sensors at higher power levels than currently allowed.</i>
One area in which I think this could be big: deaf culture.<p>Instead of a device being triggered by voice, you can trigger commands by spelling them out via ASL and hoping NL can predict wisely or give choices -> wait for users response signal.
> Facebook Inc (FB.O) raised concerns with the FCC that the Soli sensors operating in the spectrum band at higher power levels might have issues coexisting with other technologies.<p>Why did Facebook have a say in this? Are they building one too?
As an aging techie this is just the kinda new thing that will probably terrify me in 10 years from now!<p>Just like the desktop GUI confounded our grandparents... we'll be faced with a machine that recognizes gestures.<p>Not wanting to do something unintended, we'll want to avoid these things just like our ancestors!
Google already has a pretty good idea of what you are doing at all times using the sensors in your phone... this will give them even more information about you... I hope at least that this new tech won't be able to read you from the next room (through walls).
Imagine this in a bracelet form factor that puts multiple sensors in a loop around your forearm which it uses to locate and sense the position of the opposite hand.<p>VR/AR use cases suffer from poor input controls; this might be a better approach.
So with this technology will Google be able to scan anything in the room, including the gestures? If this technology is used the same way microphones are used in IOT devices like Alexa I have some concerns.
I have this this exact technology documented from 2014, except my idea uses RFID. Could literally make anything touch-enabled, included existing touchless monitors.
I remember gesture controlled light switches, and other home automation being a thing at least since eighties.<p>Yet again, this fires up my skepticism about soundness of American patent system.