Touchless gesture-based phones and flexible screens on the horizon

New innovations that could revolutionise handsets are making their way to the market after a Korean handset manufacturer announced it is launching an Android handset equipped with touchless hand gesture recognition technology, while Samsung has confirmed it will be launching devices next year that will have flexible display screens.

Pantech will be launching its Vega handset in South Korea this month, which encompasses gesture recognition technology provided by Israeli firm eyeSight. The device will enable users to answer incoming calls, activate their MP3 players, play games, and perform other tasks using simple hand gestures, according to Pantech.

“Pantech users will enjoy a completely new user experience, controlling their device with natural and intuitive hand gestures,” said Gideon Shmuel, eyeSight’s CEO.

“The agreement with Pantech allows us to extend our reach in the fast growing South-East Asian market further emphasising eyeSight’s leading position in the global field of gesture recognition technologies.”

The LTE handset also has a 1280 x 800 resolution, 4.5-inch display, and runs on a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor. It has 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel camera, a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, 16GB of internal storage and 1830mAh battery.

Meanwhile, Samsung has confirmed that it will be launching a smartphone with a flexible screen in 2012. The firm has been showcasing its flexible Super-AMOLED displays since last year and company spokesman Robert Yi confirmed in an earnings call that products utilising the technology will be on sale next year.

“The flexible display, we are looking to introduce sometime in 2012, hopefully the earlier part,” he said. “The application probably will start from the handset side.”

Yi added that tablets and other mobile devices with flexible displays would follow.

Look out for the next issue of Mobile Communications International (MCI), where we will be exploring the technologies that will shape what handsets will look like in the future. You can get your December issue by subscribing here.