Imagine if you could navigate your phone with the wave of a hand, silence or answer the device without even having to touch its surface.

Deutsche Telekom in Berlin have designed this magical user interface called MagiTact and its based on compass sensors that are now present in many mobile phones, ie. the compass app in the iPhone 3GS.

Areas where it would be beneficial is when looking through an on-screen document and folding through the pages with the wave of a hand (think like the Jedis in Star Wars) and stopping a call with a patting motion 10 to 20 centimetres above the screen.

During testing, 90% of the time the app software recognised gesture’s correctly.

DT researcher Hamed Ketabdar, explained:
“Current methods of interaction are usually restricted by the physical boundaries of the device.”

“The idea is to develop a way to interact with mobile devices through more natural human gestures.”

by Richard Armitage