The rise of touchscreen Windows 8 PCs isn’t a happy occasion for anyone who’s been carefully keeping PC screens clean: years of slapping wayward hands have been undermined by an interface that practically begs us to smudge up the display. While we suspect it’s really aiming for ease of use, Elliptic Labs may have heard that subliminal cry for cleanliness while producing its new Windows 8 Gesture Suite, a touchless control system built for a very touch-focused platform. The company’s newest take on ultrasound control can pick up 3D hand motions near the display and invoke all of Windows 8’s edge swipes and scrolling without the extra effort (or grease) of putting skin to screen. The method doesn’t need a one-to-one map of the screen and can work even in pitch darkness, which leaves adoption mostly dependent on hardware support rather than any wary users — despite immediate availability for the SDK, PCs need extra microphones and transducers to drop the touch layer. If computers with the Gesture Suite arrive in the hoped-for 12 to 14 months, though, we can get back to obsessing over a fingerprint-free LCD while saving some physical strain in the process.
Continue reading Elliptic Labs develops touchless gesture control for Windows 8, assuages our fear of fingerprints (video)
Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Software
Elliptic Labs develops touchless gesture control for Windows 8, assuages our fear of fingerprints (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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