This software promises to bring Force Touch to any smartphone
The perfect "clickbait" isn't it? Well, that's exactly what we
thought as well, until we took a second look at the YouTube demo video,
courtesy of the University of Michigan computer engineers (official
channel and everything).
It sounds almost too good to be true, but the technology does look
pretty plausible and the creator - Yu-Chih Tung could actually be on to
something big, despite skipping to mention the Huawei Mate S in his list
of force-sensitive mobile phones. That small error, however, can be
easily forgiven once you hear just how ingenious his squeeze and
forceful touch detection approach actually is.
The system relies solely on a speaker and microphone combo, something
that is by definition present in virtually every handset out there.
While the software is operating, it emits tones at a frequency higher
than 18 kHz - inaudible to humans, but still within the range of the
device's microphone. Now, for the really clever part - the software is
designed to detect minute changes to the sound wave that occur when the
user squeezes or touches the phone a bit harder. Naturally, the really
tricky part is to differentiate between said changes and isolate the
noise, but judging from the demo, the system shows great promise and
appears to be already working.
Now, before you ask, there doesn't seem to be a demo app or any code available yet. Still, it is encouraging to see that the researchers over at the University of Michigan already have a few practical ideas for future implications, which could easily make it to end uses and be greatly beneficial.
It sounds almost too good to be true, but the technology does look
pretty plausible and the creator - Yu-Chih Tung could actually be on to
something big, despite skipping to mention the Huawei Mate S in his list
of force-sensitive mobile phones. That small error, however, can be
easily forgiven once you hear just how ingenious his squeeze and
forceful touch detection approach actually is.
The system relies solely on a speaker and microphone combo, something
that is by definition present in virtually every handset out there.
While the software is operating, it emits tones at a frequency higher
than 18 kHz - inaudible to humans, but still within the range of the
device's microphone. Now, for the really clever part - the software is
designed to detect minute changes to the sound wave that occur when the
user squeezes or touches the phone a bit harder. Naturally, the really
tricky part is to differentiate between said changes and isolate the
noise, but judging from the demo, the system shows great promise and
appears to be already working.Now, before you ask, there doesn't seem to be a demo app or any code available yet. Still, it is encouraging to see that the researchers over at the University of Michigan already have a few practical ideas for future implications, which could easily make it to end uses and be greatly beneficial.
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