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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 “w

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 “ https://youtu.be/0QNiZfSsPc0 https://youtu.be/0QNiZfSsPc0

meowface 7y ago
It's really cool and innovative technology, but I also struggle to see the point for the common user. If this were a computer monitor or projector screen, sure. But my phone is pretty much always in my hand if it's being used in any way. If it's already in my hand, what do I gain from this? I can see how it'd be very useful for people who mount their phones on some sort of distant stand. But I feel like that's pretty uncommon; though maybe I'm just ignorant of how common it actually is. It's probably much more common for tablets, like for watching videos/movies at a distance. I do that, and I could definitely see myself using this with a tablet. But for something small that's pretty much always either in my pocket or in my hand?
- kllrnohj 7y ago
  Your phone isn't always in your hand. In fact, your phone isn't in your hand for the vast majority of the day most likely. And it's in those scenarios that something like this could be cool if it works well. If it can detect your presence before you actually pick it up it could do things like fire up the face auth systems to give quicker unlock. It can auto-lock if you set it down and walk away without manually turning it off or waiting for the timeout. If the alarm is going off it can lower the volume if it detects your presence before you actually dismiss or snooze the alarm. There's all sorts of possibilities for all the times where you are not holding your phone. If it works well, that is.
- rtkwe 7y ago
  One spot where it's already improving things is in the face unlock. It uses the Soli sensor to detect when you're approaching the device then uses the camera (maybe combined with to the Soli sensor) to unlock much faster than even the iPhone. In MKBHD's initial review it was fully on and unlocked before he even brought it all the way up.
- drusepth 7y ago
  One thing that might help with the "imagine what's possible" mentality here if you're convinced your phone will always be in your hand (which is a totally valid assumption, btw), is to start imagining what other devices this chip could be inserted into, and what you could do with them "remotely".

meowface 7y ago

It's really cool and innovative technology, but I also struggle to see the point for the common user. If this were a computer monitor or projector screen, sure. But my phone is pretty much always in my hand if it's being used in any way. If it's already in my hand, what do I gain from this? I can see how it'd be very useful for people who mount their phones on some sort of distant stand. But I feel like that's pretty uncommon; though maybe I'm just ignorant of how common it actually is. It's probably much more common for tablets, like for watching videos/movies at a distance. I do that, and I could definitely see myself using this with a tablet. But for something small that's pretty much always either in my pocket or in my hand?

kllrnohj 7y ago
Your phone isn't always in your hand. In fact, your phone isn't in your hand for the vast majority of the day most likely. And it's in those scenarios that something like this could be cool if it works well. If it can detect your presence before you actually pick it up it could do things like fire up the face auth systems to give quicker unlock. It can auto-lock if you set it down and walk away without manually turning it off or waiting for the timeout. If the alarm is going off it can lower the volume if it detects your presence before you actually dismiss or snooze the alarm. There's all sorts of possibilities for all the times where you are not holding your phone. If it works well, that is.
rtkwe 7y ago
One spot where it's already improving things is in the face unlock. It uses the Soli sensor to detect when you're approaching the device then uses the camera (maybe combined with to the Soli sensor) to unlock much faster than even the iPhone. In MKBHD's initial review it was fully on and unlocked before he even brought it all the way up.
drusepth 7y ago
One thing that might help with the "imagine what's possible" mentality here if you're convinced your phone will always be in your hand (which is a totally valid assumption, btw), is to start imagining what other devices this chip could be inserted into, and what you could do with them "remotely".