Texas Instrument’s (Dallas, TX) OMAP 4 is a powerful system-on-chip that can execute the algorithms required to support applications related to mobile devices. It is, therefore, not surprising that the scientists and engineers at TI spend a lot of time thinking about the means by which people interact with mobile devices. Thinking along these lines constitutes the science and technology of Human Device Interactions. TI also spends a lot of time thinking about the means to implement new and improved forms of Human Device Interaction capability into the design of the company’s OMAP chip.

Art Berman
Insight Media Consultant

Remi El-Ouazzane, Vice President and General Manager of TI’s OMAP Platform Business Unit stated that "TI envisions a near-term mobile future that will be vastly different from today’s mobile environment. Similar to how the touchscreen changed the way we interact with our devices, touchless gesturing and 3D-HD mobile capabilities will take experiences to the next level and radically change how we connect to our devices and the things around us."

At the just concluded Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, the public was given a preview of coming attractions into TI’s view of the future. The company’s exhibition offered examples of new ways by which users could watch and interact with mobile devices.

TI’s vision of the future of interaction with mobile devices included the following capabilities:

· A gesture driven user interface will allow the movement of one or more fingers "in the air" in the vicinity of the device to control a virtual touch screen. This capability will allow point, scroll or click movements made by the user to control a graphical user interface. Such a system could be implemented by a single, inexpensive 2D camera in association with object recognition software. Touchless input could be added to and integrated with existing visual, physical feedback and even verbal types of user input.

· Content will be spread across multiple displays. An example of an enhanced mobile browsing experience that this capability could offer would be to bring a social media-like environment to mobile devices.

· Interactive projection will allow users to "point and click" on projected images. The processor will adjust the projected image in concert with the image recorded by a camera that will be resident in the device. That is, the system will allow the user to interact and manipulate a projected image in real time.

· HD-quality 3D image capture will be implemented through the integration of two cameras into the mobile device. The mobile device will contain an autostereoscopic display and could also support an external 3D display.

· The mobile device will have the capability to recognize faces, logos and objects. Devices will have the capability to identify and interpret objects in pictures or other images and provide real-time information relevant to the object.

TI expects the first touchless gesture recognition and 3D-HD mobile devices - powered by OMAP 4 chips - to debut this year. To close on a light note, the time is coming when we will all have to be at least aware and maybe careful of what we say and do in the vicinity of our own possessions! -Arthur Berman

Correction: “In Thursday’s Display Daily, Westinghouse Digital was incorrectly referred to as Western Digital. And Westinghouse’s line of LED-lit LCD-TVs start at 24 inches, not 19.”