Knock Knock. Tap Tap. Scratch Scratch. Jot Jot. Wait, that's not how the joke goes. Let's try again. Knock Knock. Who's there? Fin. Fin who? Fin Gersense. Aha, now it makes sense.
Bay Area start-up Qeexo has been working on its FingerSense technology for several years, and it looks like it's starting to reap the fruits of its labor. The software solution, which allows modern touchscreen devices to detect the difference between fingertips, knuckles, nails, styli, and erasers, has been licensed by Huawei (under "Knuckle Sense") and has been shipping with its P8 and P8max since April. It's also included in the company's more recent Honor 7. Thus I'm not sure why Qeexo decided to send its press release only a couple of days ago, but it did serve to bring the technology to our attention and we thought it was cool enough to merit showing you.
Qeexo allows different results from each interaction, like double knocking to take a screenshot, selecting text with the knuckle to avoid tapping and holding, triggering the pen or eraser when in a drawing or note-taking app, using your nail to fire a weapon in a game, and more.
How awesome is that? And to think that there's no special hardware required to tell the difference between 3 different parts of your finger and 2 different areas of a pen! It's also platform agnostic so any smartphone manufacturer or any maker of touchscreen devices can hit Qeexo up to license their technology. Right now, Huawei appears to be the only OEM partner, but component makers STMicroelectronics, Synaptics, and Invensense are all listed as well.
Going back to Huawei and the end of that video where the technology is shown working on a smartwatch... are you thinking what I'm thinking? I know it's conjecture, but boy wouldn't this be super cool on the Huawei Watch?
Source: Fingersense, Press Release
PRESS RELEASE
Qeexo Debuts Its FingerSense Touchscreen Technology on Flagship Huawei Smartphones
Huawei P8 and Honor 7 Flagship Smartphones Feature Qeexo FingerSense Technology, Enabling Users to Launch Powerful New Features With Knuckle Gestures
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 22, 2015) -
Qeexo announces a partnership with Huawei to bring its
FingerSense technology to mobile devices worldwide. Huawei, the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer, licensed Qeexo FingerSense technology, rebranding it "Knuckle Sense" for its flagship P8 and Honor 7 smartphones. FingerSense enables users to quickly access powerful device functions simply by using a knuckle to tap or knock on the screen. Watch the video of FingerSense in action
here.
FingerSense, the next generation touch platform from Qeexo, is the world's first software-only solution with the ability to distinguish between touchscreen inputs from the fingertip, knuckle, nail, and stylus. FingerSense offers the flexibility to assign unique actions for each gesture, creating an enhanced, more immersive user experience. These unique FingerSense features include:
- Capturing screenshots quickly and easily with a knuckle knock
- Circling an area of interest with a knuckle to crop any portion of the screen, without ever opening a photo editor
- Replacing the dreaded "long-press" functions with a simple knuckle knock
- Drawing various knuckle gestures such as letters or shapes to launch a variety of applications
- Distinguishing between a stylus and a finger without the need for expensive hardware
"FingerSense adds a layer of intelligence to smartphones that enables faster access to core features and creates a far more powerful experience for users," said Sang Won Lee, CEO of Qeexo. "This is an exciting launch for our company and we're proud to work with one of the most respected handset manufacturers in the world to showcase our FingerSense technology. Our platform is designed to integrate swiftly and seamlessly into any mobile operating system, and we look forward to supporting Huawei with FingerSense in a range of devices. Our goals are to innovate and push the boundaries of touch interaction, and this is an important step in an exciting road ahead for Qeexo."
About FingerSense
FingerSense radically enhances the functionality and usability of mobile devices by enabling the touchscreen to distinguish between and respond differently to inputs from various parts of the hand or stylus. The patented technology analyzes the unique acoustic "signature" of physical objects to identify the object touching the screen. FingerSense is software only, and can be deployed on mobile devices without the added cost or space of additional hardware. FingerSense gives manufacturers new opportunities to differentiate their products and delight customers.
About Qeexo
Qeexo develops innovative solutions to advance the field of human-computer interaction. Qeexo technologies elevate the user experience of mobile devices by making smartphones, tablets and wearables more intelligent, more powerful and easier to use. The company's FingerSense platform is the first touch technology to distinguish between the fingertip, knuckle, nail and stylus -- giving users multiple input types without needing a special peripheral. Spun out of Carnegie Mellon University, Qeexo is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. To learn more, visit
www.qeexo.com.