Microsoft debut at the Computer Human Interaction Conference - Almost Human Interactions with Machines

“Our approach requires no direct instrumentation of the hand or body, and is non-optical, allowing for a compact form-factor that is resilient to ambient illumination”

Microsoft Research Team commenting on the developement of a Touchless TouchScreen Technology for smartphones

Microsoft hasn’t been having a great week.

What with their Browser being the subject of a Zero-Day Bug in the Internet Explorer Browser that they finally fixed on at 10am on Thursday May 1^st 2014 as stated in my blog article entitled “Microsoft issues Bug Fix Windows OS including Windows XP - Corporate irresponsibility averted as CERT and DHS Slap on the wrist made a difference” which made them have to issue a fix for Windows XP Browser as well.

So what better way to fix the problem than to announce some innovative ideas that they have cooking to show the public that they are still on top of their Game!

Microsoft’s Air Gesture Keyboard  - Computer Human Interaction Conference was a Good Look

First, they developed a prototype Keyboard that can also execute commands from Air Gestures as stated in “THIS PROTOTYPE MICROSOFT KEYBOARD ALSO READS HAND GESTURES”, published May 1, 2014 By Konrad Krawczyk, DigitalTrends.

The keyboard, developed by Microsoft Research Team and bearing no official name, made its debut at the Computer Human Interaction Conference this week in Toronto, Canada. It’s basically a cross between the Leap Motion Controller and a Keyboard as described in my blog article entitled “Leap Motion Controller went live on Monday July 22 2013 - How a Theremin Computer Device revives PC sales as Everything is Possible to be controlled by Voice and Motion”.

Microsoft Research Team intent is for it to enhance the Windows 8 experience. No word from the Redmond, Virginia Company as to when this will be an official product, but it’s sure to make more persons buy more Windows 8 Desktop computers, as it’s basically a Microsoft Kinect Controller and a physical keyboard in one.

Microsoft’s Touchless Touch Screen Technology – By 2015, smartphones will be obsolete

The next innovation from the Big Bad Windows maker that also made its debut at the Computer Human Interaction Conference was the same exact thing. But instead of being for Desktop computers, it’s geared towards smartphones!

Microsoft’s Research Team, using custom off-the-shelf parts, made a Touchless Touch Screen Technology for smartphones, again bearing no name as stated in “THIS MICROSOFT SENSOR COULD MAKE TOUCHING YOUR PHONE SCREEN A THING OF THE PAST”, published May 2, 2014 By Christian Brazil Bautista, DigitalTrends. 

The Microsoft Research Team published their research online in an article entitled “A Low-Cost Transparent Electric Field Sensor for 3D Interaction on Mobile Devices”.

Microsoft’s Touchless Touch screen Technology is basically a Processor and a customized array made up of:

1.      One (1) Transmit Electrode that generates an Electric Field

2.      Five (5) Receiver Electrodes that detect changed in capacitance when your body's Electrical Field

When your body’s Electrical Field, most likely via your finger, comes in contact with that generated Electrical Field, it causes a change in the Electrical Field that is detected by the five (5) received Electrodes.

A Feedback Loop program learns and records your air gestures each time your body's Electrical Field interacts with the Electrical Field generated by the Touchless Touch Screen Technology. This is read and used to generate a 3D map of your finger movements and translating that to actual commands executed on the smartphone.

Persons who dislike smudging their pretty Touch Screen smartphones or Desktop computers will like these innovations a lot. Too bad that by 2015, the smartphone will be obsolete, that is, as soon as Google Glass drops the price significantly to about say US$199 on a 3G/4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) Contract as I’ve predicted in my blog article entitled “Google Glass launched early as a Product - Google pre-empting Samsung Galaxy Glass and Facebook's Oculus Rift replacing the smartphone in 2015 the Year of the Sheep”.

Still, if this combines with the Leap Motion Controller and Voice Commands on Desktop and Laptop computers as prophesied in my Geezam blog article entitled “Siri and Kinect: Heralds of a coming world free of Remote Controls”, then the Desktop may eventually saved by virtue of people wanting to talk to their computers like Iron Man does to JARVIS sans the Remote Control!