New Touchscreen Identifies the Angle of Your Touch

Touchscreen devices are already capable of measuring the “pressure” of your touch. Soon, however, they may also be able to measure the angle of your touch.

Researchers from Qeexo, a spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University, have developed a new form of touchscreen technology that’s capable of identifying the exact angle at which your finger touches the display. Known as FingerAngle, it uses an advanced computing algorithm to create a virtual 3D design of the operator’s predicted finger. Why is this important? Well, by identifying the predicting the angle at which the user is touching the display, FingerAngle allows for a greater number of command inputs.

Smartphones, wearable electronics and other touchscreen devices featuring FingerAngle technology are able to detect the user’s finger as it rotates — even if his or her finger isn’t changing direction/position on the actual touchscreen. It may sound like science-fiction, but FingerAngle predicts the angle at which the operator is touching the display, using this data to determine his or her next movement. FingerAngle can be used to enhance controls like volume dials, pinch-to-zoom, and more.

So, when can you expect to see FingerAngle being used in smartphones and other touchscreen devices? Unfortunately, there’s still word yet on an official launch date for the new technology. The folks behind the project have posted a video (see below) demonstrating the technology and how it works. As of yet, though, there’s no official launch date planned for FingerAngle. It may be available next year, or it could be several years from now.

“FingerAngle could also create a whole new of playing games on smartphones, doing away with on-screen representations of analog sticks or the need to use a device’s accelerometer by physically tilting it. Simply changing the angle of a finger could be used for movement in 3D games, or adjust camera perspectives,” explained SlashGear.

Video: Qeexo’s FingerAngle

Want to see Qeexo’s FingerAngle in action? Check out the video posted above.