Google is working on new technology that will give users the ability to control wearable Pixel devices, such as smart watches or headphones, through touch control on the users skin.
The Lets Go Digital portal has had access to documents submitted in mid-2020 by Google LLC before the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO). This patent is called ‘Skin interface for portable devices: sensor fusion to improve signal quality’ and was approved and published on March 3, 2022.
It is a technology that receives the name of SensorFusion, it is integrated into the devices and is capable of capturing the mechanical waves created through gestures on the skin.
Once recorded by multiple sensors, the technology combines this motion data into an input command for the wearable Pixel device being used, such as a ‘smart watch‘ or wireless headphones.
In this way, you can increase or decrease the volume of the headphones, as well as answer calls or resume the playback of an audio or a song only sliding finger from temple to cheekbone or vice versa.
On the contrary, to manipulate the smart watch it would only be necessary touching the wrist area and slide vertically, as well as on the back of the hand or on the forearm, according to the patent documentation.
In addition to swipes, this technology would be capable of registering other control gestures near devices, such as a touch, short or long, with one or more fingersas well as the creation of touch areas in the shape of a rectangle, eclipse or circle.
In order for the devices to be able to distinguish between control movements and others that are not, that users perform involuntary way, machine learning technology is used.
In that way, the user will be able to nod, chew, walk, pat or move the head without the devices detecting it as an input gesture and modifying its playback.
It should be remembered that at the end of February Sony presented headphones True Wireless Stereo (TWS) with a similar feature, the Sony Link Buds.
They are equipped with a sensor that allows you to control the playback of a file without having to manipulate them, with what they have called a projected touch system. To do this, it is only necessary for users to touch their skin.