Google innovates a lot of cool future tech, so much so that they have multiple other companies and dedicated groups taking on the projects. One such group is Google ATAP, which stands for Advanced Technology And Projects. ATAP’s goal is to get projects from conception to reality within a two-year time frame. They have a handful of projects under their belt, including Project Ara which is the modular smartphone talked about in a previous article.
Another brilliant project under development is known as Project Soli. A microchip that can expand interaction with the devices we use today, Project Soli is something straight from Tony Stark’s brain. Yes, the day is coming where all you have to do is gesture in the air to interact with your personal devices. I’m not talking about holograms floating in the air and using your hands to interact with images, but this is a gateway to such an idea. Soli is the first step, where you can utilize your hands without ever having to touch your device.
Your hands are capable of doing a lot, and Soli opens the door to far more gestures that can tell your music player to change the song,adjust the volume or even tell your phone to connect with another device, all by the way you move your fingers and hands. It is only limited to your imagination and dexterity.
The way it works is by using a radar to track your movements, and it is so precise that it can pick up any twitch in your hand. It is a really cool concept being worked on and the applications are numerous. The chip is so small it can fit anywhere and be integrated with any type of device. Imagine harnessing the ability to be far more precise in surgery by using robotics and Soli to complete the task. How about sliding open a door without even touching it or maybe even interacting with your car in some way. This project can essentially give you the ability of technology-driven telekinesis. Who knew technology would be the key to super powers, rather than biology?
Who knows whether or not such technology will be mass produced? But it sure can be. For right now, developers can eventually acquire a kit to build new interactions and applications, but we may just find it to be all around us soon enough. In the world today everyone is concentrated on preordering the new Tesla model 3 or speculating on the iPhone 7. Whatever it comes out as in the future, it may very well be a natural and uneventful transition. Sometimes not all advancements get the spotlight. We accept whatever is built-in such as bluetooth or NFC, knowing it’s there but never really taking time to appreciate it or even figure out how it works. We just know the world is constantly moving forward and whatever comes out of it is, for the most part, embraced as a new normal. Our standard of living reaches a new level and we just go with the flow. So learn about what it takes to build a future and enhance your knowledge.
