Sony patent reveals plans for touchless gestures on smartphones

Remember a little over a week ago, we reported on Sony’s floating touch technology which basically allowed users to interact with the device without actually having to touch it, although a minimum distance of 20mm was required. This technology is featured on the company’s latest Xperia Sola Android device that was launched not too long ago, and if you thought it was merely a novel feature that Sony introduced in an attempt to attract more customers, you could be wrong thanks to a patent filed by Sony.

The patent basically reveals the company’s plans to possibly introduce a new technology similar to the floating touch technology that will allow users to interact and control their devices without having to actually touch the screen, although this time the technology involved would be making use of the phone’s front-facing camera which is primarily used for video calls and self portraits these days.

Instead of positioning the camera at the top of the phone, the camera will instead be placed behind the glass touchscreen display and more towards the center of the device. Sony hopes that by doing this, the device would be more accurate at attempting to discern the user’s location and allow for tracking from an even further distance. By losing the camera at the top of the device, it could possibly lead to shorter devices that would ultimately result in a near bezel-less design.

While most patents never see the light of day, given Sony’s attempt at the floating touch technology, this particular patent might actually be made a reality, but until then, we’ll try not to get our hopes up just yet. So, what do you guys think?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Patent, Sony