Lift-off for augmented reality and gesture focus @Mobile World Congress

Augmented reality and gesture control will change the future – and that future is already here. This was the message from Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, which has just taken place in Barcelona. The solutions on show in Barcelona demonstrated how augmented reality and touchless interaction with hand gestures will revolutionise how we experience our […]

Augmented reality and gesture control will change the future – and that future is already here.
This was the message from Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, which has just taken place in Barcelona.

The solutions on show in Barcelona demonstrated how augmented reality and touchless interaction with hand gestures will revolutionise how we experience our physical environment.

Among the headline makers was Microsoft, which unveiled its second iteration of HoloLens, the world’s leading AR glasses. HoloLens 2 uses touchless gestures as its main control technology. See the presentation at https://youtu.be/k_eNxzn9DT0.

Besides HoloLens, more and more companies are making smart AR glasses, AR software and optical display technology. This is great news for us at Crunchfish and our AR technology, which enables all forms of interaction with a simple pinch gesture.

Another eye-catching innovation came from LG, which exhibited mobile phones with 3D sensors and touchless gesture control. LG also showed how smart AR glasses will be part of the consumer experience through its collaboration with Nreal.

Meanwhile, our friends at Vuzix reused the CES booth setup to show how the Blade can be used in everyday life.

Crunchfish exhibited in the Swedish pavilion and in the Infineon booth. Besides showing our gesture control technology integrated in smart glasses from Vuzix, Realwear, Epson, LLVision and RealMax, we proudly showed a demo of how our gesture control technology can be used for controlling lamps in smart homes.

Using hand gestures to interact with virtual AR objects gives the user a more immersive experience compared to when interacting with a screen or using a HW control device.

In the Infineon booth the demo consisted of a Philips Hue lamp that could be controlled by a UI only visible in AR when pointing the mobile device at the lamp. By using gestures to interact with the UI, the lamp could then be turned on/off, dimmed and change colour. The UI could also be moved around in 3D to be placed wherever the user would like to have it. See the demo film https://youtu.be/bO_t4lFjO_Y

We demonstrated how our technology adds value in smart AR glasses together with our hardware partners and one of our software partners, Nibiru. With Infineon, we displayed how it can be used in a mobile AR and smart home context.

We were delighted to see substantial interest from hardware and software makers alike. Visitors ranged from Samsung and HTC to RealMax, Volvo Cars and PTC – to name a few.

Like them, we look forward to being part of the AR and gesture control revolution. And in helping to shape a future that has already arrived.