ALL you need to control a cellphone via hand gestures is the phone’s signal. The radio waves emitted by cellphones are reflected back to them in unique ways by hands – allowing gestures to be recognised.
SideSwipe is the work of Matthew Reynolds and colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle. It comprises an algorithm that recognises the unique reflections created when fingers interrupt a burst of the radio waves that send information between your phone and the cellphone mast. In tests with 10 volunteers, the program could recognise eight separate taps, four hovers and two sliding gestures with 87 per cent accuracy.
The idea is to let people control their phones without having to touch them. “It enables interaction with the phone where touchscreens and camera-based sensors cannot work because they are occluded,” says Reynolds. So if the phone in your pocket rings loudly in a meeting, a wave of your fingers silences it, sending the call to voicemail. Or sliding hand motions can skip, change the volume or mute music tracks. SideSwipe will be presented at a user interface conference in Hawaii in October.
The widespread use of basic 2G phones in the developing world means SideSwipe could bring gesture recognition to non-smartphone users there, too, says Reynolds.
This article appeared in print under the headline “Control your phone with a radio wave”