The company is getting ready to introduce a new technology for PC users

Jul 28, 2014 06:41 GMT  ·  By

A new patent filling with the USPTO has revealed today that Microsoft is working on a brand-new technology that would finally make gesture-based commands possible on PCs without plugging in additional devices such as Kinect sensors.

The patent, which was first spotted by Microsoft News, reveals a new keyboard that supports gestures and allows users to control elements on the screen, such as windows, tasks, and menus.

Information included in the patent suggests that hand gestures made in the air could also be supported, which means that you might not necessarily have to touch the keyboard in order to perform a specific task.

Here are the details mentioned in the patent filling:

“The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding to the reader. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure and it does not identify key/critical elements or delineate the scope of the specification. Its sole purpose is to present a selection of concepts disclosed herein in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

Described herein are methods and systems for controlling a computing-based device using both input received from a traditional input device (e.g. keyboard) and hand gestures made on or near a reference object (e.g. keyboard). In some examples, the hand gestures may comprise one or more touch hand gestures and/or one or more free-air hand gestures.

Many of the attendant features will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description considered in connection with the accompanying drawings.”

This isn’t the first time we are hearing about a gesture-based keyboard developed by Microsoft, as the software giant presented such a device at the Computer Human Interaction (CHI) conference in Toronto earlier this year.

The concept demonstrated by Microsoft supported both touch and air gestures, with the company explaining that users would only have to keep their hands on the keyboard or at least very close to it in order to perform a number of functions.

What’s more interesting is that Microsoft is developing the keyboard in such a way that it would be possible to replace a number of shortcuts, such as Alt + TAB, thus making it easier to navigate between multiple running applications.

Of course, this is only a patent, and it could take a while until it gets the green light for production, but at least it’s there and is a sign that Microsoft is thinking about such a device.