[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA_-yZAEldg[/youtube]
A few days ago I presented you a video in which I had PROVEN a technology similar to the one used by Microsoft in the xbox kinect, i.e. a technology that allows controlling iDevices without actually touching them. At CES, the company Eliptic Labs officially presented this technology, and in the video clip above we have a small demonstration of how it actually works. What we see in the images is a prototype that captures gestures using a speaker that emits sounds at high frequencies (impossible to hear with the human ear) and some microphones that capture the fluctuations of the emissions.
This demo system recognizes only a few gestures at the moment: swype up/down, but it is already used in several hospitals in Norway and in the near future it will be developed to recognize almost any normal gestures that iOS allows, including multitouch ones. Unfortunately, the device can only be used if you hold your hand very close to the tablet so that it enters the cone of sounds emitted by the speaker and picked up by the microphones.
I would not be surprised to see Steve Jobs presenting a similar technology in the summer saying that this will change everything.... again.
