So now that we’ve all got touchscreen smartphones, what’s the future hold for handheld interfaces? If the Hasso-Plattner Institute has anything to say, it’s probably something along the lines of use-your-palm-as-an-imaginary-phone.
No, they’re not joking. Thanks to a wearable depth camera, you could interact with your palm the way you would use a touchscreen; all the touch inputs would be sent to the phone via Wi-Fi. The entire system has no physical or visual feedback, so it relies entirely on your muscle memory to remember what it’s like to use your smartphone without, you know, actually using it.
The researchers imagine that this technology could be used to answer a call with wet hands, which sounds a lot more practical compared to using a device completely blind.
So far the technology has proven to be pretty usable by participants who could accurately select about two-thirds of their apps using just their palms. Currently the Imaginary Phone uses a large depth camera mounted to an extending arm, but miniaturizing is in the plan. So we all will have to wait a little while before we can stare at are palms while talking to, seemingly, no one on a Bluetooth headset.
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It's neat, but a ridiculous example of a use case for this technology. Answering a phone in your pocket? You'd still need the bluetooth headset on, why not use the answering functionality of the headset? There's also the ridiculous cameras you'd have to wear, likely to be put on both sides of a pair of glasses since you'd need 2 for depth sensing.
I think this type of technology (and touch) still have a long way to go before it's more useful than physical objects.
In my opinion, with current state of technology: Physical Objects (i.e. Keyboard/Mouse/Controller) > Touch screens/pads > Object assisted motion control (i.e. wiimote/ps move) > Projected Image "touch" > Depth sensing motion
ive actually been looking at those since they've made an appearance.. looks like they've dropped down to 200$ so hopefully next time i buy a computer (probably gonna be my first desktop that is actually mine) they'll be down even farther and ill buy one
tbh i think a virtual keyboard is best because i dont have to apply any force to actually push any items down. i can type way faster on an iPod touch/pad faster than i can on a laptop, and laptop even quicker than on a desktop keyboard. think this is due to the keys being shorter stroke on a laptop than desktop and you dont even have to hardly press on an ipod/ipad.
and on topic... i can see this becoming apples new iPalm lol
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lol