GestureTek Steps Up Its Mobile Phone Motion Efforts

The Motion Application Report
By Pat Hurley
Apr 3, 2008

GestureTek announced some significant new initiatives in its mobile phone business this week at CTIA.

As we’ve discussed in the past, GestureTek’s approach to motion revolves around optical sensing, and in the mobile arena the company leverages the built-in cameras found in nearly every phone today to provide motion sensing without any additional hardware requirements (beyond sufficient memory and processor power).

The new announcements at CTIA include:

• A gesture-based photo viewing application for Windows Mobile devices: with this system installed, users can select photos on their Windows Mobile smart phone and use zoom, pan and otherwise navigate the photo using simple gestures. This system is available to carriers now.
  
• A gesture-enabled GPS navigation system: currently available in Japan (where NTT DoCoMo is a major customer) and available now for other carriers, this system lets users manipulate mapping/navigation applications with gestures rather than key entries.
  
• A still-under-development gesture-based Web browsing platform: GestureTek announced that they are working with several software vendors to incorporate GestureTek’s motion sensing technology into mobile device Web browsers, allowing users to zoom in and out and navigate Web pages using only motion.
  
• A text messaging (and text entry) system under development with Iota Wireless: this system is designed to speed up the entry of text messages (and potentially any text entry) on phones without QWERTY keypads, by allowing users to scroll through predictive text entries (using a number pad) quickly by simply tilting the device in the direction of the desired letter or word.

Video below:

All of these applications are a natural evolution of where GestureTek (and motion on the mobile device in general) has been going — moving beyond games to a more general phone interface. The interesting thing here is that GestureTek is, to a degree, laying down the gauntlet to Apple’s iPhone and its almost uncountable number of followers in the “touch” UI space — phones with touch-based UIs were thick on the ground at CTIA this week, with just about every major manufacturer and carrier laying out a touch strategy. GestureTek described their announcements as “iPhone-like Functionality With a Touch-Free Interface”, and there’s a lot to be said for the lower BOM that GestureTek’s approach offers relative to touch.

That said, we’re still in the early days of mobile device interface when it comes to moving beyond the “D-pad” type interfaces and the roles of motion vs. touch are still up in the air. Apple, for example, despite all the emphasis on touch, has clearly hedged its bets and utilized both systems. This is an area we’re going to be exploring more — if you’ve got an opinion, we’d love to hear it.

Full press release from GestureTek is below the jump:

GestureTek Introduces Practical Motion-Sensing Mobile Applications, Offering iPhone-like Functionality With a Touch-Free Interface
Company to demonstrate award-winning motion-sensing software for practical mobile applications such as web browsing, picture view, map navigation and rapid text entry at CTIA

LAS VEGAS, March 31 /PRNewswire/ — GestureTek Mobile — multiple award winner and inventor of the world’s first gesture-controlled mobile user interface and gaming engine — will showcase the versatility and multi- functionality of its EyeMobile(R) Engine at the upcoming CTIA Show in Las Vegas, April 1st to 3rd in Booth 4549.

The patented EyeMobile Engine is a software-based natural user interface that enhances the user experience for those who rely on cell phones or personal digital assistants. With EyeMobile software, virtually anything that can currently be done on a phone using conventional button presses can be done simply by tilting, shaking, rocking or rolling the mobile device. Unlike handsets using an accelerometer, EyeMobile works with the existing hardware on any camera-enabled handset.

“With over 100 motion-sensing game titles available on the DoCoMo network in Japan, and over 50 million BREW handsets enabled by the EyeMobile extension, GestureTek leads the world in the deployment of gesture-based mobile user interaction. With the addition of applications such as Internet browsers, picture viewers, map applications and rapid text entry applications, GestureTek is leading the way to a fully gestural user interface for all camera-enabled handsets, fully competitive with the higher-cost implementation provided by the iPhone’s touch system,” said Francis MacDougall, GestureTek’s Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer.

GestureTek Mobile introduces gesture-enabled picture viewer

GestureTek Mobile’s new gesture-enabled Image Viewer can be installed on any Windows Mobile device, becoming the default viewer when the user wants to browse photos on their mobile device. The user selects an image from the existing interface on their handset. Once a picture is selected, the user can naturally and intuitively manipulate the photo, zooming in and out on the image and panning around it merely by moving their wrist, with no clumsy buttons to push.

Gesture-enabled map navigation with GPS integration now available on selected handsets

GestureTek Mobile introduced the world’s first application that allows gesture-controlled navigation of maps with GPS integration. This application is currently available on selected handsets in Japan and has been made available to several North American wireless providers.

Web browsing functionality with full screen view, and gesture controlled zoom and pan, in development

GestureTek is working with multiple companies, including Torch Mobile with its Iris Browser product, to create an enhanced web browsing application that offers full screen view, and gesture controlled zoom and pan, for those who utilize their mobile device to access the Internet. Users can navigate the World Wide Web and access their email application using tilt and zoom functionalities.

GestureTek working with TiltText on gesture control applications to speed up text messaging

GestureTek is working with Iota Wireless to integrate a proprietary application called TiltText to speed up text messaging. GestureTek is collaborating with TiltText, a gesture-control application allowing for unambiguous rapid text entry that is twice as fast as the current MultiTap application. Users are able to enter short phrases of text on their mobile device, using tilt motions to reduce the number of button presses required for text messaging. The system leverages the TiltText technique, GestureTek’s patented motion sensing software and the existing camera built into a mobile handset. TiltText can also be implemented into multiple languages. A visual is available at http://www.iotawireless.com.

GestureTek’s EyeMobile Engine is currently available for Microsoft Windows Mobile handsets from manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung. It also supports Qualcomm BREW handsets, available from carriers such as Verizon, Alltel, Cellular South and KDDI. In Japan, EyeMobile is embedded in NTT DoCoMo handset series 904i, 905i and 705i. Handsets from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, running Symbian S60 or UIQ, are also supported.

“GestureTek Mobile’s motion-controlled user interface and applications are growing in popularity with mobile gaming and application developers, mobile device manufacturers and carriers. Similar solutions are moving to laptops, consoles, PC’s and set top boxes. Without a doubt, we have reached a turning point in the move to ubiquitous gesture-based user interfaces for mobile devices,” said William Leckonby, CEO of GestureTek Inc.

GestureTek’s EyeMobile technology is an extension of the company’s core patented Video Gesture Control platform, which has been licensed and employed in applications ranging from retail displays and digital signage to the Microsoft Xbox 360, the Sony PlayStation 2 EyeToy and downloadable mobile games.

About GestureTek Mobile
GestureTek Mobile is a world leader in gesture-based user interface for mobile devices and the inventor of the patented, award-winning EyeMobile Engine.  EyeMobile Engine is the world’s first software-only solution that uses the existing camera on a cell phone or mobile Internet device to provide people with the ability to interact with their device using gestures. By shaking, rocking or rolling the phone (or making hand motions in front of the phone) users can answer a call, play mobile games, scroll menus, navigate maps, view images and documents, browse the web, enter text messages and do anything else they would normally do on their mobile device, without pressing buttons.  Licensees of GestureTek’s patents or technologies include Sony for the EyeToy, Microsoft for the XBOX 360 and Hasbro for the ION Educational Gaming System.  GestureTek Mobile’s award wins include the 2008 Mobile Innovation Global Award, the LAPTOP Magazine ‘Best of CTIA’ Award and the NATPE++ Award for the Hottest Mobile Application.  Games powered by the EyeMobile Engine have been recognized by the BREW Game Developer Awards, the International Mobile Gaming Awards and the IGN Editors Choice Awards.  GestureTek Mobile developed the first gesture-recognition software to be embedded in NTT DoCoMo phones in Japan and provided the software for the first gesture-controlled mapping application on a cellphone.  EyeMobile supports many handsets on the JAVA, BREW, SYMBIAN, WINDOWS MOBILE and DOJA platforms. Applications are available for over the air download on the Verizon network.  Full developer tools are available on the Qualcomm website.   A catalogue of turnkey games and applications for multiple platforms are available from the GestureTek mobile site. GestureTek Mobile is a business unit of GestureTek Inc., pioneer, patent-holder and world-leader in computer vision control for presentation and entertainment systems.