My first reaction is, my kids would love this. I can't trust them around nobs and buttons–little hands too often pull off the nobs and buttons or pound them all at once. But they can memorize gestures, and I would far rather have them interfacing with the table.
I really want one, but have some really specific questions about a couple things.
Can it sense multiple fingers?
Since it's sonar, does it still work properly if it's hidden behind another material? I'm thinking of having a beam labs (http://beamlabsinc.com) projector hidden in a can light in the ceiling and then having Welle either installed behind a wall right by where the projector lands or embedded in the surface of the wall with a thin white covering so it would essentially be an touch interactive screen that would appear on command.
@peterfreeby Hi Peter. It is cool, isn't it? Current version of Welle supports single finger interaction, and this is why we focus on control of devices. For your use case with Beam Labs projector, we think it is valid and we have actually been testing with projectors, like the one shown in People Say Wow and Stage of Development: https://www.kickstarter.com/proj.... It is surely a good use case for work, say Presentation. Regarding multi-finger gesturing control, we are working really hard on that part.
@peterfreeby Welle does not work if it is behind another material, because Welle uses Sonar (Ultrasonic) technology. Ultrasonic wave is a mechanical wave and cannot traverse walls like other electromagnetic waves do, such as Ultra-Wide Band or Radar. The theory behind is that the sensor transmit signal pulses and collect reflected echoes when it detect obstacles. Then the sensor use the collected data to recognize gestures.
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Very cool product. I question whether you can make it for the low price point listed, but think you are on to something. You'll need 3rd party support so I would look to hire an envangelist and make sure you have some interesting day 1 launch partners. A couple of key ones to look for: An established game that would benefit from surface touching as you watch the screen during game play. A presentation app that lets you use surface touch to go through the presentation (in fact your own presentations should be doing this now), etc. I would add a super magnet and a mounting hole so you can attach to even more surfaces (vertical) and secure it from theft if it is going to be permanently installed. I would play up SONAR in the color and design (a 2 colored wave pattern on the case that reveals the product name), I would resize it to be the same form factor of an iPhone Plus or Galaxy Note and go as far as selling a special phone case that lets you pair the two devices together (you want to get them to carry it with them, have easy access to recharging it and even be able to flip tilt the phone so they can use it as a video screen as they tap/touch/glide thru their content. Also look at how you can use ADA requirements to get your device registered so that you can get Apple and Google support for using your device to navigate the phone's OS. After 29 failed projects I'm wary of backing you on KickStarter, but if you ship I'll be in line to purchase! Best of luck to your team and the cool tech you are bringing to market!
@riptide360 Thank you Stephen. We love your imagination here and most of them are very useful indeed. Some of your suggested use cases have actually been applied to our working environment already, eg. presentation and games. Mounting is a good one and we are researching on how to design the mounting point and the base. I certainly understand your concern as there are tons of failed projects in Kickstarter. However, Welle won't be one of them, as we are experienced talents with determination to apply Human-Computer Interaction into people's life. With this in mind, the most important task now is to deliver our product ASAP. We will constantly updates our new demos and applications to publics. Stay tuned and surely we will not let you down. Thank you again for your suggestions.
Welle is a smart device that instantly turns any surface into a smart controller using embedded Sonar and a highly sensitive touchless gesture control algorithm. It gives you the ability to use simple gestures to control your favorite hardware devices or software applications via Bluetooth.
Nowadays, the interaction with functions/devices is limited to the screens. With Welle, we are going to upgrade it and bring you the newest yet the most nature interaction experience - through converting any surface into the control interface!
It is now officially launched on #Kickstarter!
(Hit over 90% of the crowdfunding goal within the first 15 hours)
@yozzozo Hi Matt. You just mentioned a big name here.
We have been doing Human-Computer Interaction researches with intensive signal processing techniques, check out this one: https://youtu.be/r33Zl4cl_tE . We actually demo what Project Soli does.
The comparison comes below.
1. Technology: Welle uses ultrasonic wave, which is a mechanical wave, while Soli uses 60GHz Radar, which is a electromagnetic wave.
2. Size: Soli comes in with chip form factor while Welle is a gadget.
3. Gesture: Soli features 3D spatial gesture control while Welle features 2D surface gesture control. Although we do have solutions, like the video clip above.
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