Posted on Saturday, October 25 2008 @ 18:35 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Microsoft researchers are working on some concepts to take multi-touch beyond the screen. Engadget
reports Microsoft equipped a HTC Touch phone with a range of proximity sensors which allow you to do tasks, such as rotating pictures or clicking, by making gestures:
To do that, Microsoft proposes to employ a whole range of proximity sensors around a device, which would be able to detect gestures up to ten centimeters away, with a quick motion towards the device representing a click, for instance, or a twisting motion letting you rotate an image. While Microsoft has actually built a prototype of sorts using an HTC Touch (seen above), it still has quite a ways to go, as the sensors on the prototype actually just connected to a PC via USB and then relayed back to the phone using Bluetooth.
