Tag Archives: touchless

Touchless thermometer, 6 feet distance sensor, gesture control, proximity touch screen

May 26, 2020, by Jennifer Colegrove, Ph.D. Touch Display Research Inc.

Touchless control is in high demand. COVID-19 has made people adverse to touch surfaces that could transmit the disease, especially in public areas. With many regions reopening their economy, the development of touchless interfaces is accelerating. In the recently published “Touchless Human-Machine-Interface HMI Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast 2020 Report, 3^rd edition” Touch Display Research Inc., a market research and consulting firm, analyzed all the touchless human-machine interaction (HMI) sensor technologies and market applications.

Figure 1. Touchless Human-Machine-Interface 2020 Report.

Source: Touch Display Research, May 2020

There are over a dozen touchless HMI technologies, including touchless thermometer (and thermo imaging), 6-feet distance sensor, 4 types of gesture control, proximity touch screen, voice command, and wearable devices for access or social distance.

Touchless technologies can be used in dozens of applications, we organized them into seven categories: 1. Automotive, 2 AR, VR, XR and game consoles, 3. Home automation/TV/smart speakers, 4. Mobile phone/tablet, 5. NB/desktop/AIO PC, 6. Wearable (excluding HMD), 7. Out-of-Home touchless.

When I wrote the Touchless Human-machine-interface report, the first edition, in 2014, there were about 210 companies working on this field. Fast-forward 6 years, in 2020, our research found that the touchless human-machine-interface technologies have attracted over 390 companies working on touchless sensor, touchless software, and system integrating. Voice command and camera-based gesture have the most companies.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

jc@TouchDisplayResearch.com

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About Touch Display Research Inc.

Touch Display Research, Inc. (https://TouchDisplayResearch.com) is a technology market research and consulting firm specializing in touch screen and emerging display technologies such as OLED displays, quantum dots, flexible displays, e-paper displays, ITO-replacement, Active pen, near-eye displays, smart windows, micro & mini LED, gesture controls, voice controls, and eye controls. Touch Display Research helps technology companies grow and connecting their technologies to the marketplace. We have been writing about OLED industry for over 10 years. We were the first company to publish Quantum Dot market reports. We were the first company to publish Active Pen market report, and ITO-replacement market report. We have always been there to analyze new and emerging technologies. Touch Display Research provides reports, consulting, and due diligence to touch suppliers, display manufacturers, semiconductor companies, consumer electronics ODMs/OEMs, material suppliers, investors and venture capitalists. For report and consulting, please visit our website: TouchDisplayResearch.com.

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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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

SID Pacific Northwest chapter touch and touchless seminar in April 2015

April 10, 2015

I just came back from the SID Pacific Northwest (PNW) chapter seminar in April 2015 at Planar’s headquarter in Hillsboro, Oregon. There were about 30 attendees this time. It’s my honor to meet some of you in person.

Figure. Dr. Jennifer Colegrove giving presentation

Photo by: Mr. Johnson, Tektronix, April 2015.

My presentation title was “How to survive and lead the Touch Panel and Touchless industry in 2015 and beyond”. Touch panel industry is quickly changing. Certain companies are profitable, certain companies are losing money. In this presentation, I discussed the opportunities for growth in the touch panel and touchless human-machine interaction industry.

During this trip, I also had a chance to visit Planar and discussed touch display topics with others. More reviews can be found in the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report, April 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

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

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

Touchless bio sensor technologies and market

December 5, 2014

When I was shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond recently, I saw this S+ sleep sensor. It’s made by ResMed based in San Diego. ResMed claims it is the world’s first non-contact sleep systems that helps you analyze and improve your sleep.

Figure. Touchless sleep sensor

Source: Bed Bath & Beyond and ResMed, Nov, 2014

There are wrist-wear bands in the market that can track your sleep pattern, but a touchless (or called non-contact) bio sensor is more comfortable and convenient.

Touchless bio sensors were widely used for human safety, hygiene/cleanness, security, health, convenience, authentication and entertainment. From gesture control to voice command, from eye tracking to human motion sensor, Touch Display Research analyzed over 200 leading manufacturers, system integrators, and brand companies working in this field.

In the “Touchless Human-machine-interaction” report, we forecast the touchless bio sensor market will reach $42.6 Billion by 2020.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

New trends in touch: ITO-replacement, active pen, touchless control

Aug 6, 2014
We just published an article in SID Information Display Journal, July/August 2014 issue—New Trends in Touch.

Figure. SID Information Display Journal

Source: SID Information Display, July/August 2014

With touch panels becoming ubiquitous, the touch industry is undergoing rapid change. Touch Display Research Inc. reports on its most recent survey of the leading manufacturers in the touch-screen, ITO replacement material, active pen and touchless control industry.

Here is the link to the full article. You can become a SID member right now on their website: www.sid.org.

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team