Chipmaker Texas Instruments (TI) is investing in motion gesture recognition for the new breed of smartphone coming next year.
The US company that creates OMAP system-on-chip processors that are found in many of today’s smartphones, like the upcoming Nexus Galaxy, is building gesture recognition compatibility into the latest versions of its smartphone chips, including the version currently available.
Avner Goren, general manager of TI’s OMAP chip wing, has pointed to a few perks of using motion gestures to control a device as small as a mobile phone where some might think the tech wouldn’t suit.
These include hands-free in-car use, avoiding smearing a phone with dirty hands, navigating a sound-docked mobile, gaming on a linked TV from a distance, making presentations and simple multitasking.
The first devices to pack in motion controls similar to Microsoft’s Kinect will be hitting shelves in 2012, according to the company.
So, how would this all work? TI’s strategy hasn’t been the same as the Kinect which uses an ‘active camera’ to track the user’s movements. This would sap battery life. Instead it uses infra-red technology through the front of rear camera of a typical smartphone.
