Microphones work in tandem to track hand position and movement

Dec 12, 2011 14:23 GMT  ·  By

You'd think the so-called touchscreen age would last a bit longer, but Qualcomm is already playing with screens that respond to how you wave your hands.

As shown in a video, Qualcomm envisions handsets, like smartphones or whatever else, using ultrasound sensors and microphones to keep up with hand movements.

Said microphones are positioned around the handset and remove the need to actually touch the display itself.

With this to remove smudges and greasy finger consequences from the equation, both tablets and smartphones could be taking their next step towards the future.

Qualcomm thinks that devices incorporating this functionality can be launched even before 2012 has passed.

Unfortunately, the technology doesn't work very well in noisy environments and it isn't very cheap to put even one extra microphone or speaker in a handset, let alone three.