Google Is Making A Revolution With Movement Tracking Technology

The world is moving closer to the era of advanced technology and Google is the first company to work on a gesture control technology. This new modern technology is called Soli, it was revealed in 2016 by Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) unit and has now made a major advance towards replacing the touchscreens.

Recently, Google has made an important move to bring this marvelous technic a huge step closer to the world.

Google has finally been approved by US authorities to conduct tests on this technology.  The power levels needed for these tests will be much higher than the consumer electronics allowance. They also have to test the device’s usage on planes since it has a very low risk of harmfully affecting other spectrum users, according to the government.

How does Soli work?

Soli’s radar chip detects hand movements, creating a gesture control system.

Project Soli, which is led by Ivan Poupyrev, utilizes a radar sensor to monitor our hand's small movements and turn it into digital signals by transmitting electromagnetic waves in a wide beam. The beams are then received by a gesture recognition pipeline, which analyzes the gesture and responds accordingly.

The use of radar sensor offers several advantages such as it includes no moving parts, can transmit through objects, it is also really accurate thanks to using very high-frequency waves, its size is also reduced to a microchip, ensuring reliability and precision.

On the way from our imagination to reality

Sensors on the camera are now available, as Leap Motion can capture motion, but this approach is quite annoying and requires additional hardware. The impression of the Google system is that it uses invisible radar waves emitted from a chip that can be integrated into anything. Mr. Poupyrev's group said the biggest challenge was to shrink shoe-box radars into something as small as a microchip.

Inspired by improvements in the next generation wifi technology, called wi-gig, Google's team was able to shrink radar components when working with German chip makers - Infineon. The built-in radar is available on a large scale, and Soli can be installed in anything.

The idea would be perfect for devices with small sizes like smartwatches with little space for touchscreens and buttons. Or else, it could be handy for those with limited mobility.

Nothing can stop the innovation in technology, sooner or later, humans can interact with any device without any touchscreens or buttons, or nobs, just do some exact movements with your fingers or hands, near the device and it will follow your will. Well, for example, imagine you are listening to music at school, your phone has wifi connected but you don’t have to directly interact anything to switch songs or adjust the volume. Otherwise, you can make a knob turning hand gesture in front of your phone. How great would that be?

How about your computer has this technology, there will be no keyboard or mouse, just like the one Tony Stark has. You just need to gently touch your fingers into the virtual display and then control it.

The virtual display we only see on movies.

Thinking bigger, there are so many things that Soli can do for your convenience. If Soli technology is developed, it will provide an opportunity to experience a better life for people who are paralyzed, they can control electrical devices remotely without pressing the control button or smart mobile phone app.

Google with Soli project looks so promising with the permission they get to do more research. However, to see any big changing, for now, is hard. However, when it really comes to our life, we know this kind of technology will blow our minds.