Using Sonar For Gesture Control

FingerIO's Finger-Wagging Sonar Controls May Make Smartwatches More Usable in the Future (+Video)

Andy Boxall | March 21, 2016

Many of us associate the use of sonar with warships, submarines, and other sea-faring vessels, or with animals like dolphins or bats. However, students at the University of Washington have taken the technology and applied it to a smartphone and smartwatch as an alternative control system. so they can be controlled without touching the screen at all, or even just using a mid-air swipe.
It’s called FingerIO, and by using an active sonar system, any surface around your phone could be used as an extension of the touchscreen, where gestures and traces drawn on them would register on the display.

FingerIO allows you to interact with mobile devices by writing or gesturing on any nearby surface by turning a smartphone or smartwatch into an active sonar device. Source: http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/03/15/smartwatches-can-now-track-your-finger-in-mid-air-using-sonar/

<more at http://www.digitaltrends.com/wearables/fingerio-sonar-gesture-controls-news/; related articles and links: http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/03/15/smartwatches-can-now-track-your-finger-in-mid-air-using-sonar/ (Smartwatches can now track your finger in mid-air using sonar. March 15, 2016) and http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/fingerio-uses-sonar-to-extend-touch-controls-to-nearby-surfaces (FingerIO Uses Sonar to Extend Touch Controls to Nearby Surfaces. March 20, 2016)>