From the first autonomous car to the first optical wearable tech, Google has consistently revolutionized the technological market by not only developing new gadgets that have proven useful to millions of people, but by also coming up with never before seen technologies.
Touchscreens, a technology that is used in everything these days (watches, computers, tablets, cell phones, etc.), dates back to the 1980's, but became popular only around 2004. Today, it is still a very interesting and useful technology to have because it makes everything accessible to the human touch. Like babies discovering things with their hands, the touchscreen enables us to discover and access the world within our devices with our fingers.
And as time has gone by, there really didn't seem like anything could become more powerful or more useful than a touchscreen. Until Google decided to show off new technologies last Friday and unveiled their Project Soli.
Google has been working on something that could make the touchscreen obsolete: manipulating technology without actually touching it. Google showcased an early prototype of this using a small chip.
The idea is fascinatingly simple but this may very well be the future of household devices and even of technology itself. By using radar waves, the chip senses the movements of the user's hand and can detect and distinguish various movements. Each movement or action is then translated into commands that can be interpreted like rubbing your fingers to reduce the volume or to scroll.
The technology is still in its early stages but still represents a good leap forward in manipulating objects in virtual realities. But how will this new technology affect us? It is pretty obvious that it will have an impact on how we perceive and interact with the technological world but I guess it will counter-intuitively make us less dependent of the machines we use. Imagine if we could do anything without having to touch the screen. By using hand gestures or vocal commands, we might become more connected with the real world because we don't have to always focus on one object at a time. With one command, we might, from our bed, stop the oven, reduce the volume of our music, position an image on our PowerPoint and call a friend to dinner. All of this, quicker than ever, from the comfort of your bed.
Yet, the opposite might happen too. We might lose track of our surroundings because we are too busy gesticulating. Also, this might open up new applications in virtual reality that will make it more and more realistic. I think people will have to get use to it too; gesticulating over a cellphone seems more like something a magician would do and an obvious question is: "Are you trying to levitate it?".
Finally, is this such a good idea after all? I think it all depends on how far this new technology is implemented and how it will be used. It might help distance us from being technological zombies, or it might make us even more addicted to what we already have. I guess only time will answer this question. Until then, we can only wait and be amazed at the numerous applications this new technology can and will probably have.
For a little more drops of future, visit:
- http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-soli-finger-control-technology-2015-5
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0
- http://www.roadtovr.com/googles-project-soli-radar-hand-tracking-and-how-vr-and-ar-input-might-use-it/
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