Are Qualcomm planning gesture control for Windows 8 tablets?

This is just me speculating here. I have pieced together several facts to do with Windows 8 and come to this conclusion.

It all starts with a Canadian company called GestureTek who came up with a clever way of tracking movement, using several different sensors and cameras. The technology they created is now licensed in the ever popular Xbox Kinect by Microsft. In 2011 Qualcomm acquired some assets from GestureTek which are rumoured to include some engineers from GestureTek as well as patents.

Then in September last year Qualcomm demonstrated their new S4 processors on a range of prototype pcs at the Microsoft BUILD conference. They also announced that they would be one of the chipset manufacturers to power the 1st generation of Windows 8 tablets. The demonstration was based around an innovative and advanced method for gesturing your way around the system ui. This involved the pc picking up ultrasound via microphones. They seem to have advanced quite a way from using cameras like in the Xbox Kinect. They also said that this technology would be making it’s way into the upcoming S4 range of chips, to power phones and tablets.

The last piece of the puzzle involves ultrasonic transceivers, at MWC 2011 Qualcomm demonstrated the beginnings of their work with them. It was a pen that was digitally tracked, recorded and converted the writing to text. All using these same transceivers. Albeit using 3, the new S4 chips are said to be using 6 transceivers.

It is reported that Qualcomm have teamed up with Samsung and Sony to create the finished products. Which all point towards something that could be well and truly amazing. There is no footage of the demonstration so we can only really guess what it involves. But a gesture control Sony Vaio Windows 8 tablet is really getting me excited. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for any more info regarding this.

How you would gesture your way around Windows I don’t know. Maybe it is for media controls, playing games or just browsing the web. Hopefully we will see soon.

Sources – Wikipedia – Wikipedia – Qualcomm – Engadget