Although Apple convinced consumers that front-facing cameras were necessary for phones, most of us probably don't use them for more than the occasional video call. Google tried to find a better use with Ice Cream Sandwich's face unlock, but little-known Korean manufacturer Pantech has a much more interesting application in mind.
The manufacturer's new Vega LTE smartphone will make use of the front facing camera for gesture recognition, allowing users to perform simple actions without actually touching their phone. The software used to interpret these actions is from eyeSight, and while it has been around for a while, Pantech is the first manufacturer to turn it into something usable in a smartphone.
As you can see in the promotional video above, this technology can currently be used to take calls without touching your device. And for now, that's really all that it can do, other than change tracks while playing music. The detection software does support taps as well as swipes, but they have yet to be implemented into the OS.
Still, I think that Kinect-esq motion control could expand to have wide applications, from mobile gaming to safer in-car use. So, though this device may never make it to US shores, I think that we will soon be seeing developers start taking advantage of front-facing cameras in much more exciting ways.
[Gizmodo]
