For those of you who follow the tech news closely, the company Elliptic Labs might be one you’ve heard of. For those who aren’t familiar, Elliptic Labs is a company who has in the past dabbled in ultrasound technology, such as back in 2014 where they used ultrasound to allow users to interact with their mobile devices without having to touch it at all.
Fast forward to today, the company is back with more ultrasound technology, except that this time it could play a role in eliminating the need for proximity sensors on our phones. In case, you were wondering what those dark circles on the front of our phones are for, apart from housing a camera, speakers, and potential front-facing flash, they also house proximity sensors.
These are the sensors used to turn off your phone’s display when your ear/face is next to it. However, Elliptic Labs thinks that ultrasound could replace it and the best part is that it won’t need new hardware. Instead, it will rely on your phone’s existing speaker and microphone.
The speaker will emit sound at ultrasound frequency, and thanks to the software, it will detect when the sound waves change, such as you getting closer to it, in which it could then instruct the phone to turn off its display. Unfortunately, we are not sure which companies will be adopting Elliptic Labs’ technology, but the company did state that they are in talks with multiple OEMs.
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