Note at the bottom:
> 1) Pixel 4’s Soli implementation does not include all capabilities and interactions described here
Soli
161–170 of 325 posts
Re: Soli
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ugh. I remember when Black Mirror was viewed as creepy and dystopian... See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_Million_Merits
Fifteen Million Merits is one of their episodes that's not about the future at all, the way I read it. More of an allegory about now (or, now in 2011, anyway).
That's an interesting take that I could completely see now.
When I watched it, I guess I took it more at face value, that in the future when everything is automated, only celebrities and 'power generators' will exist, and of course the rest of the stuff like unskippable ads and in-your-face pornography.
Re: Soli
#163It is a nice piece of technology. It is a 60Ghz millimeter-wave radar. It is a privacy nightmare. It is already shipped.
Radar uses electromagnetic waves (like Wifi but higher frequency) so it can go through walls, and even typical range for gesture recognition is less than meter, It probably can go at least 10 times as far by boosting the gain of the amplifier, it is not constrained like a theremin would be because it is already working in the far field region of the antenna.
Because it work at such high frequency (but not so high that it can still go through walls), it has many very small antennas arrays, and sense sub millimeter movements even from far away. It also has beam-forming capabilities, meaning it can focus the direction in which to sense. Because it is radar, things which moves are of interests and are filtered easily from the background.
Typically this piece of technology already can or will soon be able to : sense how many humans are around it, where they are, how fast they breath, how fast the heart is pulsating, who they are by computing some heart-base ID.
It is low-power and always-on, 360° with focus-able attention. It is cheap because it can be made on a chip. (Edit: fixing typos)
Re: Soli
#164I think this could be synergetic with voice commands. It wont be useful on its own but sometimes you dont want to say every command out loud, so doing a little annoyed wave feels more natural. Soli on its own is not going to sell phones in my opinion but maybe Google is building up to a larger more aware device that can ultimately guess your entire mood, behavior and position in the room and do various things based on that. Like a sort of virtual person that would detect if you look worried and then it asks you how you are feeling today. That's a futuristic direction that I can see this going towards.
For example, one usecase that I would probably like is a phone that tracks my posture during workouts and if it's really advanced, it could give me advice or fire me up on my last reps. Like a personal trainer. Right now it seems we aren't anywhere near that but this is my guess for their strategic direction.
Re: Soli
#165Those growing up with Remote Controls of the kind: https://i.imgur.com/AIqz63k.jpg After a few days, the user develops a muscle memory of sorts. User doesn't even have to look at the controller and all actions (and feedback) are executed through the tactile interface. From cockpits to nuclear power plants to home tv remote control, there is absolutely nothing that replaces physical buttons, encoders, sliders and togg…
I have an apple trackpad device (i.e. separate from the laptop) and I believe it uses a fake haptic feedback to indicate a "click" as opposed to a real mechanism. It's indistinguishable from a real click. HOWEVER, it makes my skin crawl when the driver doesn't register my click and there is zero feedback when I press down on it. It's like pressing down on the surface of my desk and it feels absolutely gross. This happens more frequently than I'd like.
Re: Soli
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would be useful when cooking with mess on your hands and trying to scroll through a recipe.
This is the one and only suggestion so far that makes sense. It would be nice when cooking. If I was sitting in a bus/train/plane/concert/ , there is no chance in hell I am waving my hands at a phone. I would even feel silly doing it at home.
You can extend this to mechanics/technicians. Manipulating a large screen when your hands are full of grease.
Re: Soli
#167It is a nice piece of technology. It is a 60Ghz millimeter-wave radar. It is a privacy nightmare. It is already shipped. Radar uses electromagnetic waves (like Wifi but higher frequency) so it can go through walls, and even typical range for gesture recognition is less than meter, It probably can go at least 10 times as far by boosting the gain of the amplifier, it is not constrained like a theremin would be because…
Not that I don't believe you, but I would like to see some sources on some of these claims you're making...
Re: Soli
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
>there is absolutely nothing that replaces physical buttons, encoders, sliders and toggles Even space, versatility, & cost aside, there are definitely tasks that a touch screen does better. Using a map with a touch screen is incredibly intuitive compared to a mouse. (I cannot imagine using sliders or other "physical" interfaces) >A physical button guarantees that the action was performed by the means of feedback So y…
> Not sure why you're so confident with this when most people I tell are surprised that their new Macbook touchpad is entirely haptic and not actually moving. I'm not really sure I understand this, I remember a fair amount of discussion when it came out. But, just trivially, I have the latest MacBook Pro, and if I look at it from the side, it is indeed clearly moving as I press down, and not as some sort of weird mil…
Yeah, but what you are feeling with the "click" is not directly physical. Turn your computer completely off (not just power off, but like, "hold the power button" hard shutdown, and that "click" will stop happening.
Re: Soli
#169I was impressed when I saw it back in 2012. It took them a while to ship it into an actual product.
Re: Soli
#170Consumers need to boycott this stuff. This chip has one purpose: surveillance. All the "features" on this press release are contrived and useless, but they are hoping it's shiny enough that we like it and want it.