Motion

Reading your smartphone without needing to look at it. Playing video games with your eyes. Pouring beer using your mind.

These were some of the technologies showcased during CNET's "The Next Interface: You" panel today. CNET editors Lindsey Turrentine and Brian Cooley led a discussion about how humans will interact with devices that use people's bodies instead of traditional input devices.

The discussion included the people behind some of the superstars of this new area of technology -- Fitbit CEO James Park, Nest founder and VP of engineering Matt Rogers, and Leap Motion Founder and CEO … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Touchless gesture control may soon be possible on Apple's iOS devices, thanks to a startup that will be releasing a software development kit enabling the technology.

For some time, Israeli company PointGrab has been making its technology -- which allows users to control activity onscreen with little more than a wave of the hand -- available on a series of platforms, namely Windows 8, Android, and Linux. And next month, Apple's iOS will join the party.

In a demo at CES here today, Assaf Gad, PointGrab vice president of marketing and product, showed CNET how the technology … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Touch screens are so last year.

These days, touchless gesture control is the hot thing. Just last week, San Francisco startup Leap Motion, which developed a motion-control technology with sub-millimeter accuracy, announced a $30 million B round of funding. And at CES here, there are multiple companies showing off technology that lets users control their computers with little or no physical contact with a screen or a mouse.

One of them is Palo Alto, Calif.-based Elliptic Labs, which has pioneered an ultrasound-based touchless gesture control system. In a demo for CNET, Elliptic showed off its Windows 8 Gesture … Read more

LAS VEGAS--I avoid buying new hardware whenever possible, so if I can add functionality to my existing gear with a simple software solution, I'm interested.

Extreme Reality (XTR3D) does just that. It turns your run-of-the-mill 2D camera into a full-body motion control system for fully interactive gaming.

The idea is you can forget Microsoft's Kinect. … Read more

LAS VEGAS--TVs you control by waving your hands, smartphones you talk to instead of touch, and glasses that track your eyes to move a cursor: these technologies used to be relegated to either very high-end industrial/military applications or very low-end junk that didn't really work. Now, body-controlled technology is showing up all over the broad middle of consumer electronics at CES 2013.

CNET will probe several of the sharpest minds developing these new ways of controlling our tech during "The Next Interface: You" panel on Wednesday at 3 p.m. PT on the CNET stage at … Read more

Leap Motion, which created an innovative gesture control technology that measures users' movements to an accuracy of a hundredth of a millimeter, has struck a deal to bundle its Leap device and app store with a series of Asus computers.

According to Michael Buckwald, CEO of the San Francisco startup, the Asus deal -- under which the computer giant will package the Leap device with high-end laptops and premium all-in-one PCs, and pre-install the Leap app store on those computers -- is just the first partnership of its kind. Similar deals with other computer makers, or even smartphone manufacturers, are … Read more

Research in Motion's stock, which has had an impressive run over the past few months, appears to have finally gotten tripped up.

The BlackBerry maker's shares fell more than 14 percent today, a day after reporting fiscal third-quarter results that investors considered better than expected. The stock recently fell $2 to $12.08.

If you look beyond the basic revenue and profit, RIM's performance in the quarter gave reason for Wall Street to be concerned. Ultimately, these results matter little; what will determine the company's fate will be the success or failure of its BlackBerry 10 … Read more

There may be life in the BlackBerry PlayBook yet.

Research In Motion's tablet saw a surprising jump in shipments in the fiscal third quarter, with the company sending out 255,000 units in the period. In the last quarter it shipped 130,000, only slightly less than the 150,000 it shipped a year ago.

So what gives? Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka said during an investor conference call today that there was strong "promotional activity" in North America, with RIM seeing some success with the Wi-Fi and 4G versions of the PlayBook in North America and … Read more

Research In Motion posted a profit in the fiscal third quarter thanks to a favorable tax settlement, but it ceded some customers along the way.

The company reported a profit of $14 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $265 million, or 51 cents a share. Revenue fell by nearly half to $2.72 billion. Excluding the one-time item, it reported a loss of $114 million, or 22 cents a share.

The results were better than Wall Street expected. RIM was supposed to post a loss of 35 cents a share on revenue of $2.… Read more