About 600 million smartphones will feature vision-based gesture recognition technology by 2017, according to a new study from ABI Research.
The research firm said gesture recognition technology adds another dimension to users’ interactions with machines, devices, or computers though several challenges remain for this technology for mobile devices, including effectiveness of the technology in adverse light conditions, variations in the background, and high power consumption.
ABI, however, believes these problems can be overcome with different tracking applications and new technologies.
ABI Research senior analyst Josh Flood said gesture recognition is a very exciting prospect, particularly for smartphones and tablets.
"These devices are already heavily entrenched into peoples’ lives and another communication interface is always very welcome," Josh added.
Camera-based tracking for gesture recognition has actually been in use for some time and leading game consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation both have gesture recognition equipment Kinect and PlayStation Eye, respectively.
These devices are in their seventh and eighth generation.
This year, Qualcomm has been heavily promoting its Snapdragon chipset processors’ visional gesture recognition technology and Intel has primarily focused upon touch capabilities for its notebooks and ultrabooks.
According to the report, Intel’s senior management has acknowledged gesture and voice recognition will be a "big deal" in the computing sector next year.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor will offer smartphone OEMs with camera, infrared, and ultrasound based tracking, providing new interactions and enhancing the users experience.
Currently, only a small number of the smartphones shipped have gesture recognition.
Korean smartphone OEM Pantech, began selling its Vega LTE handset last November with gesture recognition technology using camera-based tracking.
ABI Research projects that a higher percentage of media tablets will have the technology than smartphones.
