Full Video Of 3D Touch Sensing Technology Featuring McLaren Released

Few days back, we reported about a new project that Microsoft Research presented at ACM CHI 2016, a top conference for Human-Computer Interaction. The research paper titled “Pre-Touch Sensing for Mobile Interaction” explored the idea of 3D touch for mobile interactions. Microsoft Research today published a new video which talks about this new tech in detail, watch it above. Ken Hinckley, a principal researcher at Microsoft who led the project, said the following regarding this project.

The research uses the phone’s ability to sense how you are gripping the device as well as when and where the fingers are approaching it. “It uses the hands as a window to the mind,” Hinckley said. By allowing the interfaces to adapt to you, on the fly, they are always tailored to the specific context of how you are currently holding or using your phone.

“I think it has huge potential for the future of mobile interaction,” he said. “And I say this as one of the very first people to explore the possibilities of sensors on mobile phones, including the now ubiquitous capability to sense and auto-rotate the screen orientation.”

In our previous report, we were not quite sure whether the 3D Touch feature that was supposed to come with Nokia McLaren (Lumia 1030) and this pre-touch project from MSR are same. Based on the inputs from various people, looks like MSR’s pre-touch sensing is nothing but the 3D touch feature that was planned to be released along with McLaren. And the device which they are using in the above video is nothing but McLaren. You can check out the leaked photos of cancelled McLaren device here.