LG brings back Air Gestures with the LG G8 - No more Touch?
35We’ve seen gestures before on Smartphones. In 2013 Samsung released Air Gestures on the Galaxy S4, but it just used a regular camera and the hand actions were exagerated and slow to respond. But in 2019 we might just be ready for gestures on a smartphone. Google assistant has gotten used to controlling devices with our voice, so the world might just be ready for gestures. LG thinks so and introduced touchless ID on the LG G8.
Technology has improved since Samsung tried to implement this 6 years ago. LG has a Time of flight sensor which uses a transmitting and receiving sensor. The sensor enables Palm vein authentification, which is the first for a smartphone, it uses the unique vein pattern in your hand to unlock the phone. Face unlock is even more secure, and Air motion lets you control music playback. The air gestures are registered by apps just like the controls on a bluetooth headset, so they’ll work with most players. You can answer or dismiss calls, snooze alarms turn off timers and capture screen shots.
We think that there are scenaarios where gesture is useful when you think of the places that you use voice over touching your phone. Sure this does make you put your hand near the phone and voice can happen anywhere, but in the kitchen there are plenty of times where gestures are useful.
We’re excited for the future where we unlock our phones with our palms and wave our hands around like it’s the minority report. Samsung might have been too early with inferior technology. Timing is everything and they might have gotten it right with Air gestures on the G8.