Vaikundarajan Reviews Microsoft’s Pre-Touch Technology

Microsoft showcased its Pre-Touch sensing technology through a video posted on YouTube. The technology anticipates your fingers before they touch the screen and provide you with contextual menus adapted to the grip. “The technology provides a new approach to use interfaces on mobile devices,” says Vaikundarajan.

The device can track the movement of user’s fingers around the edges of the device whether or not the phone is held with two hands. “The touchscreen can sense the fingers in close proximity to the screen even before the user touches it,” adds Vaikundarajan. The technology will allow phones to anticipate user’s gestures and provides contextual menus based on how the phone is being gripped.

Microsoft Research also demonstrated dials for going through the timeline or adjusting the volume when watching a video. For instance, the interface of a video player adapts two handed views or one handed views. The users will typically access the progress bar to navigate to a particular point in the video or adjust volume with a horizontal slider on top. The technology reads these user patterns and acts accordingly.

“It is not clear if Microsoft will be using the Pre-Touch technology in its smartphones. However, if launched, it would be interesting to see if this technology can compete with Apple’s 3D Touch interface and other gesture-based interaction models,” concludes Vaikundarajan.