Will Gesture Sensing Replace Touch Screens and the Mouse?

In 1998, Motorola launched the first mobile phone Dyna and in just 2 or 3 decades we can see how much advancement has come up in this field. Earlier, keypads were being used but now we have touch screens. Even imagining a phone with the traditional keypad seems like a very old idea now-a-days.

In recent years we have seen a considerable advancement in the field of mobile technology and we are seeing that there comes a new technology day by day to improve the user interaction and interface with mobile phones.

One of these technologies is gesture recognition or gesture sensing technology.

What is Gesture Sensing?

“Gesture sensing is an infant technology which has goals of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms.” Gesture sensing technology will allow you to control your smartphone without even touching it. Although it is not practical today, in a very short time period it will be the major specification in smartphones and will most probably it replace touch screen phones.

While gesture recognition is not a new concept, many smartphones and laptops use this technology today.

Do you know where?

No? Okay let me ask you something…

What do you do to zoom an image in your touch screen smartphone or what happens when you press and hold the screen for few seconds?

Yes, to zoom you stretch the screen or tap it twice, and when you tap the screen for a few milliseconds there appears a list of actions you can perform at the moment. These are all examples of gesture sensing technology whereby your smartphone is analyses your gestures and converts them into some useful commands. While the present technology is not so interactive, it will pave the way for the bright future of gesture recognition.

What if you don’t have to touch your smartphone? What if your phone can understand what you want from it just by hovering  your hand over it or making some gestures.

Gesture Sensing will Replace the ‘Mouse’

The major problem with touch screens is that they get scratches easily but believe me, in future, user may not have to touch their screen anymore. Today, we can already see that touch screen technology is being adapted by laptops and other gadgets. Following the same pattern the gesture sensing technology will not be limited to smartphones but it will be applicable to laptops or PC also. This means that soon you will no longer be using your mouse or touch-pad in laptops.

Furthermore, in future you can just move your finger over your computer screens and it would sense your commands. The accuracy of gesture sensing technology will decide the future of traditional input devices technologies like keyboard, mouse or touch screen technology. Thus, users may no longer need to have a mouse and other inputs.

The Future of Gesture Sensing Technology

More likely it is predicted that the keyboard and mouse will become totally obsolete in future due to their slow speed and will someday be regarded as old “dinosaur technology”. Modern gesture sensing devices will allow greater control over all aspects of the user information, resulting in data being retrieved in a matter of seconds.

Very soon we will see a drastic advancement in gesture recognition technology and will witness millions of wristwatch-sized gesture sensing enabled devices which will introduce a combination of human-machine interfaces that has only previously been seen in Sci-Fi movies.