With Coronavirus accelerating the fear of touching objects and people alike, there is an increase in demand for interaction sensors. Companies across the world are investing in research and development to implement the same in various products. This technology can already be seen in smartphones – Proximity Sensors, automobiles – Car Reverse Backup Radar System. This is the next big innovation that is going to change the way we interact with objects.
An Interaction Sensor is a semiconductor device that captures the minimal hand movements of a millimetre scale. It includes a transmitter that emits radio waves in the form of a frequency modulated signal. When those waves are objected by hand gestures, they get scattered and reflected back to the radar receiver. The received waveforms will then be analysed against the actual waveform. Based on these differences, it will perform the intended action or command.
We can add a tiny sensor on the chip of the system to track all the gestures without physical contact. These chips can be embedded within different products and the gesture recognition pipeline can pick up the commands accurately. Google’s Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL are the early adopters of this technology with motion sensors. It allows you to change the music playing, lower the volume, silence a call, etc. This is achieved by integrating a short-range radar sensor in the smartphone, which allows it to recognize gestures with signal processing and machine learning (ML).
The market value for interaction sensors is expected to rise up to USD 44.75 Billion by 2023. This signifies the increase of prominence in the consumer electronics sector. The integration of these sensors into different objects is an exciting development as it leads to the introduction of several new features and an enriched customer experience. The ongoing research of industry leaders like Google and the products like Soli will drive more Motion Sense features across a wide variety of fields and products.
