Project-Natal-Style Interface For Mobile Phones

An anonymous reader writes "The University of Tokyo is developing a Project-Natal-style interface for mobile phones, which allows you to interact with a phone by waving your finger around. Members of the Ishikawa-Komuro Lab have used a high-frame-rate camera to track the motion of a finger and recognise input gestures. The touchless interface can be used to navigate around a phone's screen and even to type."

I could probably get used to it, but...

[IndustrialComplex]

I guess I understand some of the 'neato' factor that this could have, but isn't one of the big issues introduced with simple touchscreens the LACK of haptic feedback?

I love my iphone, but I miss being able to just reach into my pocket and dial a call, or skip a song/rewind, etc. Having to pull my phone out every time I want to do anything other than change the volume is damned annoying.

I could just see this kind of interface being more annoying to use.

Public interface

[need4mospd]

This would be pretty cool to slap into some public use areas like train stations, airports, movies, etc... Half the touchscreens I've used in public areas are always broken(or half working) after a couple years from people pounding on the screen when it won't respond. Slap a piece of plexiglass in front of it that you can replace when it gets damaged, saves the expense of a whole new touchscreen.

Re:Wow, that's stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

It let's you easily draw in 3D space. Tell me of another interface which lets you do that easily.

Re:Air-Typing? No thanks

[psnyder]

The cool, practical implications for hand-held devices start coming to mind if this is combined with a touch screen.

(The camera would also need to be less obtrusive, and able to detect fingers just above the touch screen.)

Re:Hacking..

[ViViDboarder]

Most of the time you have to wake a device before you can do any input. That would probably involve hitting a physical button.

As for brute forcing... You must be fluent in sign language or something. It's not plausible that if someone was using this to detect some kind of pattern on a device that you'd be able to sneak your little hands over there and try every possible combination in 3D. This detects depth too. So it's not going to be something like Android lockscreens where you slide Left, Left, Right, Up, Right, Down or something. You'll have Up, Down, Left, Right, Front, Back all as possibilities. It would take a very long time to "brute force" with your fingers.

Also, the device is limited to a fairly short usage distance as well. The contrast between a hand 5 feet away will probably too small to allow the software to define a good finger outline when switched to Black and White. You'll notice that the camera is surrounded with really bright LED's to ensure that, at a short distance at least, the finger is distinguishable.

So essentially, there is no more security flaw to this as there is any practical reason to use it on a phone. :p