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Touch screens? That’s soooooo 2007. Say hello to the Kinect-ish gesture controlled Pantech Vega LTE for Korea. The device was announced back on the 6th with some pretty hefty specs and even without the knowledge of touchless gesture controls, the Vega LTE already had me drooling. The video below shows a Korean woman covered in dough and rather than get her phone all gooey, she uses a simple swipe gesture over the phone to answer the call.
The technology involved comes from the Israeli company eyeSight Mobile Technologies and will be integrated into the Vega LTE when it launches in South Korea this November. Besides answer calls, gestures can also be used for controlling music playback.
If you thought Pantech only made budget-friendly Android devices packing low-end specs you’d be sadly mistaken. We’re looking at a 4.5-inch display with 1280×800 resolution, dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP camera, 1.3MP front facing camera, 16GB of internal storage and a 1830mAh battery. The device itself measures in at a 9.35mm thin and weighs a mere 4.8oz. Besides NFC capabilities you also have the previously mentioned gesture controls. Let’s hope Pantech will wise up and release powerhouses like this stateside.
If more Android OEM’s hope to take advantage of gesture controls in their devices they better get their legal team ready. The UPTO recently published a patent application from Apple attempting to claim touchless gesture controls just like this (as well as facial recognition) for use with the iPad.
[Via AllThingsD]
gesture{middle_finger} ==> apple_lawsuit
To Chris Chavez:
I don’t understand why you have to put an Apple slant on everything… At Google IO, Google showed touchless gestures. And now Pantech shows it too. The Apple patent application you show has nothing to do with those. First of all the UPTO has not given the patent to Apple. Second of all Apple’s application is not even for what Pantech is showing. And 3rd of all, there is a huge amount of prior art on touchless controls. Just because Apple files a patent, it doesn’t mean they “invented” anything. They are just shamelessly stealing great ideas.
Yes, they steal them as you say, then seem to have some sort of mind control over the patent office too, as they often get all these BS patents that are way too broad or cover something that’s been around for a while, and then they turn around and sue everyone.
And with Apple’s tactics, new devices get either delayed from their target markets, or pulled altogether (at the very least until legal proceedings are done).
I suppose, in a way, it’s like those Japanese vegetable ‘inspections’, that by the time they are done the inspection, the vegetables are rotten and useless. Same with technology–if you hold up a new device long enough, by the time it hits the market (even if the lawsuit is lost/dropped by Apple), much-fewer people want it, and will have bought an Apple product instead.
‘Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal”
Just because something has a feature doesn’t mean the competition can’t have it. Really every company steals from each other. Some implant it better than others.
Apple actually patented the process of using a body part or indeed any part of the body including the entire body itself to interface with technology of any kind in any way. Let the lawsuits begin!
LOL….adult toy manufacturers better be aware…LOL
Apple invented facial recognition and touchless gestures ya know. *rollseyes here we go again.
Someone better patent mind control before Apple decides to! Oh, wait…. Apple already uses mind control on their users….
theyll patent the motion to speak…that way if you talk you will have to pay rotten apple.
apple invented touchscreen phones too, though I had a windows mobile device with touch screen 3 years before iphone 1 came out.
t mobile wing
Well obviously apple didn’t get it done in time the patent should be void
Unfortunately first to patent is the new law, not first to invent. Patent laws need a major overhaul because any corporation with money like Apple can just pay a think tank to patent ideas, whether they actually get used by them or not.
this phone has awesome specs hope they bring one to the states
oh shoot i used my keyboard, do i owe apple?
That is badass however and i look forward to having this on my phone. Makes perfect sense, hands are dirty or tied up but still want to use phone.
*insert joke about waving other body parts*
“Too small to recognize. Please try again.”
*face(otherbodypart)* NO, not facepalm!
Tea bag?
Apple sucks, just like them to patent something they didn’t create. I’m so sick of this b.s. I don’t mind apples products as everyone should have a choice but this patent crap is getting out of control. If apple has their way they will be the one company allowed to sell tablets and cellphones all around the world.
Thats the plan, world domination mwah hahahaha!
I can’t believe they will get a patent that is blatantly a rip-off of Microsoft Kinect. Interestingly enough, they apply for a facial recognition patent right when Google attempted to show facial recognition in ICS.
It seems like Apple is trying to patent prior work. It would be funny to see them sue Microsoft for Kinect claiming they patented 3D gestures.
Wonder where MS got the kinect idea from? Guess Wii will never know. :P
ICY what you did there!
This is already possible on your current phone as long as you have root. Prox Pro! Amazing app!!
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.LancerVII.Prox&feature=search_result
I fail to see why Apple needed to be mentioned here.
Well if you fail, what do you want us to do about it, everyone else knows why Apple was mentioned
because they have ( or filed for at least) a patent on this exact tech in teh states…. thus they could sue. Thus it is relevant.
I thought Sony would be the first to start this. They already have this tech on VAIO laptops, where I can control my media gallery (slideshow) by waving hands in front of the camera. Such a simple idea, why didn’t they put that on the phones once front facing cameras appeared?
Apple needs to get a life… Stop the crap!!!
Looks too much like an iPhone. Suit to follow.
F*ck Apple. I got a gesture for them…
Wonder how all the users of Kinect will react?
Oh btw… this phone is a BEAST. Why can’t we have this now?? Lol
WTF. They have a patent application out on this? What pisses me off though is when you get in an argument over this stuff and you point out that this idea has been seen before in say a movie like Minority Report. Some idiot will say its a movie its not real. However a patent application without even a fake video representation of the idea (like a movie) IS considered real. Neither did any work to make a working prototype.
I’ll conclude with some words from Bill Gates.
“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete stand-still today. The solution . . . is patent exchanges . . . and patenting as much as we can. . . . A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high: Established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.” Fred Warshofsky, The Patent Wars 170-71 (NY: Wiley 1994).
Looks like eyesight’s Patent application goes back to 2006 in the EU. http://www.europatentbox.com/patent/EP1730627A2/abstract/1029560.html
and April 2011 for the US
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&p=1&S1=%22eyeSight+mobile%22&OS=%22eyeSight+mobile%22&RS=%22eyeSight+mobile%22
“The video below shows a Korean woman covered in dough…”
… and hence none of the remaining text in the article got read, sorry. :P
If Apple just patented that and pantech already built it, guess Apple is in trouble. Sadly still has static buttons on the bottom guess no ICE.
Well, if you leave to all you fruit maniacs out there, Apple would be suing for patent rights on Air Conditioning, The Internal Combustion Engine, Sliced Bread, and Toilets that flush. Anything else you guys want to file suit for? Did Apple invent written communication too?
335 PPI!!!
GO ISRAEL (Not Palestine in MY opinion so please dont tell me ur opinions about it) FOR MAKING SOMETHING SOOO AWESOME FOR PHONES!