Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Soli

atap.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 325 posts

Re: Soli

#181

Post by rtkwe »

psychometry wrote: post #136
nexuist wrote: post #134

>Motion Sense will be available in select countries. Just...why? What is the point of region locking this? It's only hardware, isn't it?

Patents?

It's much more likely it's just regulatory. Not every country has the same rules on spectrum usage and may require additional certification before allowing Google to use the Wi-Gig band. The FCC raised the power max for them when they approved the chip back in January. They're probably running into issues getting similar allowances in other countries (or not bothering to because of the small market).

[0] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/googles-project-soli...

Re: Soli

#182

Post by snewman »

dmd wrote: post #154
snewman wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As predicted in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "...an electric pencil flew across the cabin and through the radio's on/off-sensitive airspace."

Well, but Trillian did that on purpose specifically to turn off the radio.

Fair point.

Re: Soli

#183

Post by shadowgovt »

loriverkutya wrote: post #155
shadowgovt wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may help to understand Google's priorities by following up on this Hacker News link ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21271087 ). Their goal is ubiquitous access. To get to that goal, they're collecting a lot of data about the world and their users to figure out where, when, how, and why users want data to optimize getting it to them. And yes, it probably serves their ad model too, but there's more to it than…

Their goal is the same as every company's goal, earn money. If they introduce anything new, the first question is, how that will make money for them. If it is collecting data, the question is, how they can use that data to earn more money. Also as it has been mentioned by someone in the comments, I'm really not keen being surrounded by another set of devices that can "see" me CCTV is more than enough already. I also…

Kind of but not exactly. Money is the lifeblood that the corporation needs to survive; earning money is the goal in the sense that the purpose of human life is "eat food."

The fact that the corporation is still basically privately owned though publicly traded (in the sense that the founders retain a controlling stock percentage) means that they can use the money as a means to whatever ends the founders wind up the company and point it at. They know the game is over if they run out of money, but that doesn't mean the game they're playing is "Build maximum monetary value for shareholders" any more than the game you or I are playing daily is "What will I have for dinner." They have enough controlling interest to vote that that's not what the company's primary goal is, in practice.

Now, why would anyone who isn't them play that game by buying GOOG/L stock? Because in spite of the company's goal not being "maximize revenue," it's very good at generating both revenue and product people care about, and the people trading its stock are excited about that. They get a piece of the action, even if they don't actually call the shots.

Re: Soli

#184

Post by scrumper »

shantly wrote: post #77
scrumper wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'll end up in street billboards and beacons in stores too, surely. Walk past, glance at an ad, it'll hoover up your cellphone MAC...

If it hasn't already ID'd you by gait as you approach.

Ugh! Hope you're wrong. I know the resolution of the radar is sufficient to recognize little gestures (dial, for example), but that must fall off over distance, surely. Hopefully. Right?

Re: Soli

#185

Post by cannam »

snewman wrote: post #123
jasonhong wrote: post #119

I recently showed some videos of Soli in the HCI class I teach. Students immediately hit upon the two major issues I wanted to discuss (I was pretty proud!). The first is learnability. A big problem with gestures is that there is no clear affordance as to what kinds of gestures you can do, or any clear feedback. For feedback, one could couple Soli's input with a visual display, but at that point, it's not clear if th…

As predicted in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "...an electric pencil flew across the cabin and through the radio's on/off-sensitive airspace."

It certainly seems on-point.

"A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wavebands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme."

This is from 1979 of course.

Re: Soli

#186

Post by rtkwe »

Copenjin wrote: post #161

Note at the bottom: > 1) Pixel 4’s Soli implementation does not include all capabilities and interactions described here

I wonder if that's a software or hardware imitation.

Re: Soli

#187

Post by cmroanirgo »

GistNoesis wrote: post #163

It 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 seems like they need some humans to tweak their algos, by playing a game no less:

>* Headed South is an experience that introduces Pixel’s new touchless interface to users in a playful and engaging way. Through your journey, learn, practice and master the use of Motion Sense gestures to gather a flock of birds and fly South to escape the storm.

Re: Soli

#188

Post by andoma »

allenu wrote: post #165
spectramax wrote: post #51

Those 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 hap…

Tangental: Reminds me how buttons in various places (I've noticed this in elevators and POS terminals) beeps when you press them. However, the beep is not really tied to the CPU registering the event but rather the button itself being pressed. Ie, sometimes when you press the button, it clearly beeps, but nothing happens. Not sure if it's a result of underspecification or cheaping out on the electronics or both.

Re: Soli

#189

Post by tibbon »

GistNoesis wrote: post #163

It 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…

Time to make a theremin app!

Re: Soli

#190

Post by lukifer »

mlevental wrote: post #45

I'm sure the answer is no but can I buy just the chip?

That's what I want to know as well. This github[0] mentions the sensor as a standalone item, and this appears to be the manufacturer[1]. This[2] is the closest I could find for purchase (24GHz, as opposed to Soli's 60GHz, and nearly 300 bucks to boot).

[0] https://github.com/simonwsw/deep-soli

[1] https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/promopages/60GHz/

[2] https://www.avnet.com/shop/emea/products/infineon/demodistan...

Post reply on HN