[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7PvCuc3WPQ[/youtube]
In the video clip above we have a short demonstration of a dock specially made for the iPad tablet by the Norwegian company Elliptic Labs, dock that will bring the technology from xbox kinect to iPad tablets. This new dock uses ultrasound to perceive the user's commands through the simple gestures made by him in front of the sensor. Notice from the video clip that everything works exactly as in the case of an xbox kinect device, but for the iPad you need a special dock that implements this new technology.
The idea is that you use touchless gestures to operate the primary functions of a docked tablet in situations like when you have wet or greasy hands in the kitchen. In general, tablets are made for being handheld. When it is docked you are often walking or standing further away, and then using a finger on the screen involves a change of modality. Rather than bending down, leaning forward or picking it up you can use larger movements a little bit further away to do things like volume up or next song without changing modality.
Everything started as one prototip for several types of tablets, but in the end the company chose to work only with the iPad tablet because it is the best-selling one on the planet. This new technology generates a touchless zones in front of the device, the area where, using an ultrasound-based technology, the sensor perceives the gestures made by the user and, with the help of special software, directs the iPad tablet.
To be honest, such a technology would have unlimited applications not only on the iPad but for any device. If Apple had managed to implement something like this in the iPad 2, then surely no rival of this tablet would have posed a problem.
The new product will be presented at the CES 2011 conference next month.
