Items tagged with gestures
We already know the upcoming Pixel 4 series will support motion gestures—Google confirmed the "Motion Sense" feature in a short video teaser, along with facial recognition support to unlock the handsets. Now we have a pretty good idea of what specific apps will work with Motion Sense from the get go. One of them is Spotify. Born out of Google's Project Soli, the Motion Sense feature uses radar technology to detect hand gestures. This allows users to perform tasks like skipping tracks or playing the previous one simply by waving their hand in front the phone. Motion gestures could be especially, um, handy (pardon the pun) when working on a car or eating chicken wings lathered in hot sauce,...
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I recently upgraded to an iPhone XS Max (and spent way too much doing so), and much to my surprise, I don't miss the home button like I thought I would. It hasn't taken long to get used to system-wide gesture controls. Interestingly enough, Android may be making a major change as well—a pre-release build of Android Q suggests the back button may go the way of the dodo bird, in favor of gestures. Android is not without gesture controls already, of course. In Android 9 Pie, Google replaced the three-button navigation system with a two-button scheme, with the recent apps button getting the axe. It also introduced new navigation controls as a whole, such as the long press of the pill to launch...
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Google released the first developer preview for Android Pback in early March, but at the time, we didn't know what Google would call the mobile operating system. Well, today at Google I/O, the tech giant spilled the beans on some of the new features that will be included in the operating system, but we still don't have an official name yet... bummer. Google isn't attempting to reinvent the wheel with Android P, but it is making a big push for artificial intelligence (AI) on the platform. By allowing more processing to take place on-device, you don't have to rely so much on the cloud, and your data stays secure on your smartphone. The company worked with its DeepMind division to use...
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There's still a lot we don't know about Google's upcoming Android P release, but thanks to an inadvertent leak on Google's own blog, speculation about certain minor details has now exploded. It looks like the Home button icon has turned into a pill, the back button into an outline, and the dialog boxes now have curved edges. In a blog post talking about network security improvements in Android P, a screenshot left in tact revealed all of the things mentioned above, as well as a couple of other aesthetic changes. Since publishing, Google cropped out some of the screenshot, which could either mean we were simply not meant to see those details yet, or, it could mean that it's not final design, and...
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It's crazy to think what kind of technologies will be commonplace in vehicles within the next 10 or 20 years. Whereas power windows, cruise control, and more recently satellite radio were all once cutting features, today's generation of car buyers may wonder how we ever got by without such amenities. Likewise, the next generation might be accustomed to new technologies BMW is putting in place, like touchscreen displays with gesture controls and key FOBs that take the stress out of parking in tight spaces. Let's start with the touch display. In the next generation of the BMW 7 Series, the iDrive operating system's monitor will come with a touch display for the very first time. It's a logical extension...
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Google is apparently getting really serious about gesture control. In addition to acquiring Flutter, a San Francisco-based startup that develops gesture recognition technology, the sultan of search filed a patent application for using gestures in vehicles to perform a number of functions, such as changing the volume of music, raising or lowering the cabin temperature, and more. The patent describes using different gestures in different parts of the vehicle. Waving your hand in front of the radio, for example, would allow you to control the audio system. The obvious upshot is that once you learn the gestures, you'd be able to change the channel, cycle through presets, and crank up the volume when...
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The future of computing may very well lie in gesture control, hence the popularity of platforms like Microsoft's Kinect sensor and growing interest in devices like the Leap Motion controller. Not to be left behind, search giant Google has gone and scooped up Flutter, a San Francisco-based startup that develops hand gesture recognition technology. According to a statement on Flutter's website by company CEO Naveet Dalal, the firm will continue its gesture recognition research at Google, though it's not clear if the entire staff will be retained or not. Dalal likened Google's acquisition to adding "rocket fuel" to its journey, and Google sounds equally excited about the deal. "We're really impressed...
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At the risk of reviving a tired comparison, we can't help but bring up the fact that we keep inching closer to Minority Report-like computing. Swiping and using gestures on physical touchscreens served as a primer, and the next step is to be able to do those things in thin air. Well, guess what? You'll soon be able to, provided you own a Kinect for Windows. Microsoft is reportedly close to releasing an updated SDK (Software Development Kit) for the Kinect that will allow developers to integrate gestures such as pinch-to-zoom into their apps. With the new functionality in place, the Kinect is able to augment the exoskeleton with a grip-and-release signal. Pinch-to-zoom is accomplished by making...
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