Tel Aviv, Israel – Dec. 17, 2013 – PointGrab Ltd. today unveiled the next generation in gesture recognition solutions for consumer electronic devices and home appliances. The breakthrough technology allows consumers to control devices from distance by simply pointing at them. The solution uses depth information to create a “transparent space” in front of the user enabling a “touch-like” operation of devices, but from a distance. The new “AirTouchTM”technology is designed for Consumer Electronic devices and the new “PointSwitchTM”solution works for home appliances. Both breakthroughs will be privately demonstrated at the forthcoming Consumer Electronics Shows (CES) 2014.
This new user experience allows consumers to use even more natural gestures to control and interact with devices, by simply pointing from a distance. This is a major step in making the gesture control experience significantly more natural, friendly and usable for the masses. This next evolution in user experience will become readily available for large screens like televisions, Personal Computers etc. as well as be implemented in home controls, so users will be able to simply point at appliances to turn on lights, adjust the air conditioner, close window shades and more.
“This new experience revolutionizes the way people will naturally interact with consumer electronic devices as well as home appliances,” said Haim Perski, CEO of PointGrab. “We are proud to unveil the next generation solutions in gesture recognition and work together with our partners to make it available on mass market devices for consumers around the world”
PointGrab’s AirTouchTM for Consumer Electronics uses depth information to essentially create a “virtual touch space” right in front of users, so they can point directly at anything on the screen to access it. This is a major step building on PointGrab’s existing award winning technology which allows consumers to use a variety of actions such as swipe, thumbs up, grab, drag and drop, two hands zoom and rotate to interact with their devices as well as use gesture shortcuts including “mute,” “like,” and more.
Product video showcasing the AirTouch solution can be viewed here:http://youtu.be/VylZWC8RiJ8
PointGrab’s PointSwitchTM solution for Home Environment allows consumers to control home appliances from a distance just by pointing to them. Turn lights or air condition on or off, as well as enable more complex controls such as dimming the lights, partially drawing the shades, or increasing the temperature on the air conditioning. PointSwitch works in full darkness and from wide angles and distances from across the room. The solution can be implemented in mass market home environments, as a new installation or retrofit. Product video showcasing the PointSwitch solution can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/J0tK3-Fbbfk
PointGrab‘s existing market-leading solutions have been commercially available since 2010 and are currently integrated into millions of consumer devices through many of the world’s top OEMs, brands such as Samsung, TCL, Lenovo, Acer, Skyworth, Fujitsu and others.
Closed-door demonstrations of the new technology will be available by appointment only, at CES, Jan. 7-10 in Las Vegas. AirTouch and PointSwitch will be ready for OEM integration in early 2014.
