We know that Samsung is going to announce its new flagship, the Galaxy S IV, on March 14 in New York City. We know less about the phone itself. Today, though, we have one more piece of that puzzle, with a new report that the phone will feature eye-tracking technology.
According to the New York Times, the Galaxy S IV will feature software that tracks your eye movement. The technology will be primarily integrated with reading: finish with a page of text, and the phone will automatically scroll to the next page.
The report doesn’t go into much more detail, or explain the specific tech behind the eye-tracking feature. But it's likely nothing more than eye recognition software that uses the phone's front-facing camera. Samsung did recently file for “Samsung Eye Scroll” trademarks in Europe and the U.S. The filings described the feature:
- Computer application software having a feature of sensing
eye movements and scrolling displays of mobile devices, namely, mobile
phones, smartphones and tablet computers according to eye movements;
digital cameras; mobile telephones; smartphones; tablet computers.
Innovative or gimmick?
It isn’t clear whether eye-scrolling will prove to be innovative, but it has some promising ingredients. It’s new, and – to our knowledge – hasn't been implemented before. Though touching your screen to scroll a page is hardly a chore, the hands-free feature could potentially seem “magical” enough to capture customers’ imaginations.
Stay tuned for more Galaxy S IV coverage, leading up to the device’s March 14 launch event.
No comments:
Post a Comment