Welcome to Project Soli

Google finally ships a research project in a real product and people don’t seem to understand the usefulness. Human nature for some reason often devolves to “what’s the point?” Here’s the 2015 announcement. There’s a lot of potential. Maybe we’d all benefit from “imagine what’s now possible “ [VIDEO]

Better pen input would be great, especially for drawing. How about some form of chorded keyboard or glove? A chorded keyboard was demonstrated in 1968 by Engelbart: [LINK] Google's Soli project might lead to better input: [VIDEO]

How long before gestures move off the screen surface? This technology got off to an exciting start but it quickly hit a wall. It was disappointing, for example, when Microsoft had to unbundle the Kinect. Microsoft's Kinect - 2010 Leap Motion - 2010 Intel Real Sense - [LINK] Google's Soli chip - 2016 - [VIDEO] Google's Touch Sensitive Fabric: [LINK]

This tool is for people who can't use their hands, of course. For the average person, we're pretty close to being able to use voice instead of typing. [LINK] [LINK] Throw in eye tracking and precise gestures ( [VIDEO] ) and the keyboard isn't necessary.

It would be great if some of the repetitive tasks didn't even require a keyboard but rather use subtle gestures, eye tracking, and voice commands. Leap Motion, for example, never panned out but Google's Soli project might get us there: [VIDEO] Throw in better autocompletion ( [LINK] ) and software development becomes more precise and less repetitive.

No one said that the solution has to be all speech. Throw in some small gestures and that'll be faster than reaching for a key. [VIDEO] Throw in eye-tracking and you can pick out any word quickly.

Gesture based computing is almost here in some form. Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft are all working on it: Apple: [LINK] Intel Real Sense - [LINK] Google's Soli chip - [VIDEO] Microsoft shipped the Kinect 6 years ago. The need for hand tracking with VR headsets should give it another boost. By the 20th anniversary of Minority Report? [LINK]

"The keyboard is the only thing I need, except for the glasses." I think this loses a lot of appeal until we can throw away the keyboard. We should be able to do better. Hopefully, Google ships this silicon this year: [VIDEO] I'd rather have those monitors and no keyboard.