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Here's how it works: the palm of your hand is in view of a depth camera. Wherever you point on your palm corresponds to an area of the screen on a touchscreen phone. The computer hooked up to the camera then sends relevant commands. Researchers at Potsdam University figure that this technology that they've developed could go from experimental to commonplace without many people even noticing:
In their tests, the depth camera was a clunky head mounted device. "But ultimately, we envision the camera becoming so small that it integrates into clothing, such as the button of a shirt, a brooch, or a pendant. So people would not even notice if someone carries an imaginary phone," Baudisch told New Scientist.
"We envision that users will initially use imaginary phones as a shortcut to operate the physical phones in their pockets. As users get more experienced, it might even become possible to leave the device at home and spend the day ‘all-imaginary'."
Answering calls on the phone would still require the physical device – but it would be possible to access apps and forward calls to voicemail with the imaginary version.
Link via Walyou