touchless

BARCELONA, Spain--One of the more jaw-dropping tech demos on view at this year's Mobile World Congress, new touch-screen technology from chipmaker STMicroelectronics lets you control your smartphone or tablet without actually touching the display.

Using it, you can swipe, drag, and prod at your touch-screen device, replacing the fear of fingerprints with the feeling of controlling a spaceship's navigation system.

There's nothing special about the touch screen itself, but rather about the controller chip that manages the panel. Rather than monitoring contact with the screen, the chip observes the electrical field that the tablet's touch screen … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Touchless gesture control may soon be possible on Apple's iOS devices, thanks to a startup that will be releasing a software development kit enabling the technology.

For some time, Israeli company PointGrab has been making its technology -- which allows users to control activity onscreen with little more than a wave of the hand -- available on a series of platforms, namely Windows 8, Android, and Linux. And next month, Apple's iOS will join the party.

In a demo at CES here today, Assaf Gad, PointGrab vice president of marketing and product, showed CNET how the technology … Read more

Elliptic Labs wants to bring the touchless gesture controls seen in the science-fiction film "Minority Report" to everyday consumer electronic devices, starting with Windows 8.

The company -- a Norwegian university spinout with offices in Oslo and Silicon Valley -- unveiled a set of tools to help consumer electronic companies enable touchless controls in their products. These would be similar to the kind of gesture controls seen with the Xbox 360 Kinect and in certain smart televisions like a few models from Samsung Electronics, but presumably would work more smoothly.

That's because the Elliptic device won't … Read more

There are plenty of those awkward moments in the kitchen when your hands are covered in raw chicken bits or eye-searing chile and you're trying not to touch anything. There's only so much you can do with your elbows.

This is why it makes sense to bring touchless technology into the kitchen. Restaurant and gas station bathrooms have been using touchless paper towel dispensers for years. Now there's a fancy version for the home.… Read more

InfoWorld was the first to report that Microsoft has released a new Touchless SDK to help developers kick the tires on multi-touch technology.

But it was TechCrunch that pointed to perhaps a more significant aspect of the release: it's open source.

Released under the Microsoft Public License, the Touchless project is a good example of Microsoft doing its own experimentation around open source. The Touchless SDK isn't a revenue-bearing product, though it could be a way to create products that drive Microsoft revenue, especially given that the SDK only works on Windows today, which could lead to Touchless-created … Read more

Of all the shared items in any household, the personal thermometer may well be a germaphobe's worst nightmare. Just think about how it's used--on second thought, don't. But there may be a non-invasive answer to our fears.

The "Thermofocus" claims to be the first "non-contact medical thermometer," using infrared technology to take temperatures without ever touching skin. Just hold it "close to the forehead, navel, or armpit and line up the projected light beams," according to its product description, and you'll get a "totally hygienic" digital reading one … Read more

Talk about the world turned upside-down. The last thing we thought we'd ever see is people clamoring to make their bathrooms more like public loos, but that's apparently what's happening in our increasingly fixture-fixated consumer market.

We knew the trend had become mainstream (no pun, honest) after witnessing the overwhelming popularity of Dyson's "Airblade" hand-drying machine. But that product is aimed at the business market--we think. The "EZ Touchless Infrared Sensor Faucet," however, is clearly destined for the household at $50, according to GadgetGrid.

And why not? It's at the perfect … Read more

We're impressed. Crave is proud of its unfettered history of laziness, but even we might be too embarrassed to have something like this.

The "iTouchless Towel-Matic Automatic Sensor Paper Towel Dispenser" promises to handle the laborious task of pulling a sheet from the roll, which we all know is a back-breaking experience. To be fair, as Uber-Review notes, it could make a nice gift for your favorite germaphobe.

Actually, given our own idiosyncrasies, maybe this idea isn't as bad as we thought. We just hope that it's more efficient than its seven-word name.

Another week, another cool touch screen video that everyone's e-mailing around the office.

The latest most-forwarded is the CeBIT demo video below, which is a collaborative effort between TouchKo, White Electronics Designs, and Groupe 3D. A cross between a monitor and a Wii controller (without the actual controller), the "touchless touch screen" responds to hand movements directly in front of it; you don't even have to come into contact with the screen.

Looks pretty neat, but also kind of exhausting. Although we haven't seen one available in stores yet, the concept of a "touchless … Read more