Microsoft recently demonstrated new touchscreen technology that can anticipate users’ actions and call up different controls, options, or menus to suit the current task.
Pre-touch sensing helps the phone determine how the user is gripping the phone, as well as where the user’s fingers are approaching the display. Using these cues, the device is able to provide adaptive user interfaces that are specific to the context of how the phone is being held and used.
In a video, Ken Hinckley, principal researcher at Microsoft, shows how users can access video controls that vary depending on if the phone is being held in one or both hands.
Pre-touch sensing can also help better differentiate between flicking gestures, selecting text, and highlighting content. The technology is in a developmental stage and Microsoft hasn’t said if or when it may bring pre-touch sensing to consumer devices.
