Tag Archives: gesture control

ODG showcased smart glasses with gesture control at AWE 2016

June 2, 2016

I just returned from AWE (Augmented World Expo) 2016 conference. AWE is the largest event dedicated to AR, VR and wearable technology.

At AWE 2016, ODG (Osterhout Design Group) showcased its smart glasses with gesture control.  Touch Display Research had a chance to try on the R-7 smart glasses and test the gesture control.

Figure: Dr. Colegrove tried on the ODG smart glasses at AWE 2016.

Jenny gesture near eye device small

Photo credit: ODG

In the recently published “Sensor for Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence 2016 report”, Touch Display Research profiled 67 companies working on camera-based gesture-control. This number has increased from 56 companies just two years ago.

Figure 2. Companies working on gesture control, voice recognition and other touchless HMI sensors.

touchless company number 2014-2016

Source: Touch Display Research, Sensors for AR VR and AI 2016 report

More analysis and review can be found in the “Touch and Emerging Display report” June 2016 issue.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

 

Microsoft keynote about active pen and gesture control at SID 2016

May 26, 2016

At SID 2016 DisplayWeek, Microsoft’s Distinguished Scientist, Mr. Steve Bathiche gave a keynote presentation about the advanced user interface technologies they are working on and his vision for the future.

Steve showed a video of their improvement of the active pen for Surface with less and less latency. Then he said, “Now it feels like real paper; sounds like real paper too!”

Figure: Microsoft’s Steve Bathiche keynote at SID 2016.

Microsft Steve keynote SID 2016

Photo by: Touch Display Research

Active pen input is very useful in education, certain language input, medical, finance, industry applications, and content creation. In the recently published “Active Pen 2016 Report (Second Edition),” Touch Display Research Inc., a market research and consulting firm, analyzes more than thirteen active pen technologies. Touch Display Research forecasts active pen writing module (includes pen sensor, pen and controller IC) revenue will reach $6.1 billion in 2021, from $2.9 billion in 2016.

Figure 2. Active pen module market forecast

Active pen market forecast 2016

Source: Touch Display Research, Active pen 2016 report

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

CES 2016 what to expect

December 29, 2015

First of all, on behalf of Touch Display Research Inc., we wish you a Happy New Year.

In early January, I’ll travel to Las Vegas for CES 2016. At CES, we expect to see:

  1. Flexible or transparent OLED digital signage from LG and Samsung. In the “Flexible OLED display technologies, supply chain and market forecast 2015 report”, Touch Display Research analyzes flexible OLED display technologies, manufacturing process, other competing technologies, and shows the flexible OLED display had attracted over 180 companies and research institutes.

Figure 1. Flexible OLED display industry ecosystem with over 180 companies and research institutes

Flexible OLED 180 ecosys

Source: Touch Display Research.

  1. We’ll see Quantum Dot displays from most OEMs at CES 2016. In the “Quantum Dot Display and Lighting Technologies and Market Forecast 2015 Report” Second Edition, Touch Display Research forecasts that the quantum dot display and lighting component market will surpass $2 billion by 2016 and reach $10.6 billion by 2025. This report profiles over sixty companies working on quantum dot materials and quantum dot components.

Figure 2. AUO’s 85” quantum dot TV with 3M and Nanosys’ QDEF

AUO 85 QD TV with TDR

Photo by: Touch Display Research

  1. Augmented reality and virtual reality with touch and touchless sensors. In the newly published “Touchless Human-Machine Interaction Sensor Market 2015 Report,” Second Edition, Touch Display Research forecast gesture control, voice recognition, and other Touchless HMI sensor market will reach $44 Billion by 2021.

Figure 3. Touchless HMI Sensor Technologies and Companies

touchless company number 2015

Source: Touch Display Research

See you at CES 2016. If you can’t make it, it’s OK, we’ll have CES 2016 review in the “Touch and Emerging Display monthly report”.  You can subscribe on our website in the Market research report page.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

 

Touchless Human-Machine-Interaction (HMI) Sensor Market has attracted over 200 companies

October 6, 2015

Touchless Human-Machine-Interaction sensors include voice recognition, gesture control, eye tracking, proximity touch, motion sensors, short-range wireless interaction and others.

This market is gaining momentum:

  • Microsoft Windows 10 OS added two touchless HMI features: voice control and facial recognition.
  • Apple recently acquired two touchless HMI companies.
  • Facebook joined the touchless HMI wagon in 2014 by acquiring Oculus. In 2015, Facebook/Oculus acquired another two touchless HMI companies.
  • Augmented reality and virtual reality devices “love” touchless HMI sensors, since they rely on touchless HMI sensors for sensory inputs to function smoothly, and deliver the cool imagery and features.
  • Google announced radar-based gesture control project Soli in 2015.

Over 200 touchless sensor suppliers, system integrators, and brand companies working on touchless HMI sensors. Camera-based gesture technology attracted 58 companies working on it; 49 companies are active on motion sensor fusion; 30 companies are active on voice recognition.

Figure 1. Touchless HMI Sensor Technologies and Companies

touchless company number 2015

Source: Touch Display Research, Touchless HMI Sensor Market 2015 Report, October 2015

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Facebook Oculus acquires Pebbles Interfaces for gesture control

July 18, 2015

On July 16th, 2015, Facebook’s subsidiary Oculus reported that it just acquired Israel-based Pebbles Interfaces. Based in Israel, Pebbles Interfaces has spent the past five years developing technology that uses custom optics, sensor systems and algorithms to detect and track hand movement. Pebbles Interfaces will be joining the hardware engineering and computer vision teams at Oculus to help advance virtual reality, tracking, and human-computer interactions.

Although Oculus didn’t report how much they paid for this acquisition, rumors hold Oculus spent $60 million.

In the past, Pebbles has received a total of $11.5 million from investors.  This Oculus acquisition is a handsome pay off for the previous investors.

Figure: Pebbles Interface gesture control.

Pebbles Interfaces

Source: Pebbles Interface, Oculus.

In the “Touchless Human-Machine-Interaction” 2014 report, Touch Display Research has profiled Pebbles Interfaces in the report. Touch Display Research believes touchless human-machine-interaction (HMI) is the next big thing. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, LG, Intel, Qualcomm are all working on touchless HMI. They had acquired or will acquire small companies with touchless technologies.

From mobile phone to automobiles, from digital signage to home/building automation, from notebook PC to wearable devices, touchless human-machine-interaction is gaining momentum.

Touch Display Research forecasts the touchless HMI market will reach $42.6 Billion by 2020.

Figure: Touchless human-machine-interaction market forecast.

Touchless HMI forecast TDR

Source: Touch Display Research Inc. Touchless HMI 2014 report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

 

AWE 2015 augmented reality, gesture and voice control market

June 11, 2015

The annual Augmented World Expo (AWE) was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center from June 6-10, 2015. It’s organized by AugmentedReality.org.

It claims is the world’s largest event focus on augmented reality, virtual reality and near eye wearable devices. There are about 200 exhibitor and 3000 attendees this year. I had a chance to visit this event and talk to some exhibitors.

At AWE 2015, Bosch demoed a system that can help technicians with car repairs. I had a chance to interview Dr. Taufiq Hasan and Dr. Soohwan Kim from Bosch’s Research and Technology Center based in Palo Alto. Picture here is Dr. Kim demonstrating a technician could wear the HMD and see the part number and illustrations, then he/she and order parts by voice command, “Order part number 5124.” After a second, the screen will feedback, “Status: Part number 5124 is ordered.”

Figure: Bosch demonstration at AWE 2015

Bosch gesture voice

Photo by: Touch Display Research Inc.

Touchless human-machine-interaction (HMI) is the next big thing. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, LG, Intel, Qualcomm are all working on touchless HMI.

Touch Display Research analyzed nine touchless technologies: camera-based gesture control, camera-based eye tracking, ultrasound gesture, voice recognition, photodiode sensors, proximity touch screen, motion sensor, short-range wireless and other touchless technologies.

In the Touchless Human-machine-interaction (HMI) report, Touch Display Research forecast the touchless HMI market will continue to have rapid growth, and will reach $42 Billion by 2020.

Figure: Touchless Human-machine-interaction (HMI) Market Forecast.

Touchless HMI forecast TDR

Source: Touch Display Research Inc. Touchless HMI 2014 report.

More review of AWE 2015 exhibitions will be in the “Touch and Emerging Display monthly report”, June 2015 issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

2015 FLEX conference review

February 27, 2015

I just came back from the 2015 FLEX conference in Monterey California. There were about 600 attendees this year, a little more than last year. It was great to meet some of you in person.

At 2015 FLEX conference, Professor HK Chung from Sungkyunkwan University in Korea gave a keynote presentation titled “Plastic Revolution”.

Professor Chung first introduced the history of flexible AMOLED and his work at Samsung when he was the VP there.  Then he discussed the challenges of flexible OLED. He indicated, “I used to say LCD is a dumb display. Now I had to say LCD is very smart, you only need to change the backlight, add quantum dot to get vivid pictures, you don’t need to change much in the front plane.”

Figure. SKK University Professor HK Chung giving presentation

HK Chung

Photo by: Jennifer Colegrove, Feb 2015.

At 2015 FLEX conference, on behalf of Touch Display Research, I gave a presentation titled “Touchless bio sensor technologies and market forecast”. I discussed the market of gesture control, voice command, eye tracking, proximity touch and human motion sensors.

Figure. Touch Display Research Dr. Colegrove giving presentation

Jenny 2015 flex

Photo by: Ms. Stoeva, Brewer Science, Feb 2015.

Sensors and wearables are hot topics at this year’s FLEX conference.  More reviews can be found in the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report, February issue and March issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Thalmic Labs Gesture Control

July 9, 2014

Recently Thalmic Labs, a start-up company based in Canada, announced it has developed a new thinner arm band for gesture control.
This week I had a chance to interview Thalmic Labs’ marketing director, Mrs. Banduk. Thalmic Labs was founded in April 2012. (www.thalmic.com). currently the company has about 50 people.
The main technologies that Thalmic has been developing are based on electromyography (EMG) sensor. When our muscles move, they generate electrical signals. An EMG sensor can translate these signals to graphic or numerical values. Eight EMG Sensors are integrated into an arm band, which they named it Myo– the middle 3 letters from electromyography.

Figure. Thalmic Labs arm band for gesture control
Thalmic
Source: Thalmic Labs

Thalmic originally planned to bring the Myo Alpha to market by end of 2013, but later decided it’s too bulky and want to improve it more.
In June 2014, Thalmic Labs announced it has developed the new Myo arm band. It’s 50% thinner than the Myo Alpha. Also they ditched the copper electrode for the EMG sensor, instead used medical level stainless steel on the new Myo. This is wise, as we covered several months ago, Fitbit’s smart watch, named Force band, caused some users to have rash on their arms after they wear it for several days. Fitbit had to re-call thousands of them.
More analysis and comparison of 5 gesture control technologies will be in our “Touch and Emerging Display” monthly report. You can subscribe to the report right now on this website.

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team