• Home
  • Trends
  • Company News
  • Product News
  • Fashion
  • Podcast
  • Events
  • About
  • Contact
  • March 8, 2021

Wearable Tech Insider

The Inside Word on Wearables and Wearable Technology

You are here: Home / Trends / Chirp Microsystems Pioneers Gesture Controls

Chirp Microsystems Pioneers Gesture Controls

November 4, 2013 By Dan Rosenbaum

Two of the key limiting factors of wearable tech are battery life and the manipulability of the interface. If something is small enough to wear unobtrusively, how is it possible to physically manipulate it so you can control it? Your fingers, after all, are not the finest instruments on earth.

Technology Review reports on a new company, Chirp Microsystems, that’s developing chips only a couple of millimeters square that can control wearables by handwaving.

Chirp uses sonar via an array of ultrasound transducers—small acoustic resonators—that send ultrasonic pulses outward in a hemisphere, echoing off any objects in their path (your palm, for instance). Those echoes come back to the transducers, and the elapsed time is measured by a connected electronic chip. When using a two-dimensional array of transducers, the time measurements can be used to detect a range of hand gestures in three dimensions within a distance of about a meter.

The control is hand motion, not finger pointing. At least not yet. But think about pad or phone multi-touch interfaces that don’t actually need touch, and you’ll start to understand how neat this could be.

 

Last updated by Dan Rosenbaum on November 4, 2013.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Google
  • Email

Related

Filed Under: Trends Tagged With: chirp, gesture, interface

← PopSci Wonders What Wearable Tech Really Is OhMyGod!! It’s Wearables Barbie!!! →

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe now to the Wearable Tech Insider's weekly news blast. You'll get links to the top half-dozen stories in the world of wearable tech, optimized for quick reading. It's the best way to read the Wearable Tech Insider; it's free and you can change your mind any time. And, of course, we'll never sell your name or e-mail address...

Search This Site

Recent Posts

New Use Case for Apple Watch: Red Sox Stealing Signs

Fossil Debuts Two Android Wear Smartwatches

Garmin Shows Three New Fitness Bands at IFA

Fitbit Ionic: Minimal Acceptable Product?

Intel (Finally) Ditches Wearables for AR

Don’t Believe Everything You Read: Wearables Are Far From Dead

Eyes F.lashing Before Your Life

Smarty Pants: Nadi X Yoga Leggings

Rings: How Smart Can They Be?

Upskill Closes Series B Financing, But Won’t Say How Much

Stories from Health Tech Insider

  • Digital Apps Work Better for Weight Loss
  • New Study Shows More Consumers Adopted Digital Health in 2020
  • Machine Learning Could Make Early Autism Diagnosis Possible
  • New Smart Hearing Aids Run Up to 61 Hours Per Charge
  • Amazon Picked as Greatest Impact on Healthcare
  • Seniors Are Safer With Help from New Remote Monitor System

Topics

2013 android android wear apple apple watch apx labs basis battery CES ces2016 CES2017 epson finance fitbit fitness fossil fuelband garmin gear glass google healthkit intel iWatch jawbone LG market research microsoft misfit MWC15 nfc nike omate omsignal pebble recon samsung smartwatch sony sports tizen vuzix withings wristware wristwear

Sign up for Wearable Tech Insider

First name
Last name
* = required field

powered by MailChimp!

Subscribe now to the Wearable Tech Insider's weekly news blast. You'll get links to the top half-dozen stories in the world of wearable tech, optimized for quick reading. It's the best way to read the Wearable Tech Insider; it's free and you can change your mind any time. And, of course, we'll never sell your name or e-mail address...

Made in New York
Wearable Tech Insider is proud to be Made in NY.

All text © 2015 Center Ring Media

Privacy Policy

Center Ring Media Sites

Wearable Tech Insider
Seniortech Insider
Health Tech Insider

Copyright 2016 Center Ring Media | Site by JRMC

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.