Google Patents Reveal New Remote-Control Methods Using Radar Sensors

Google fashioned a radical new way of remote-controlling consumer electronics gear and appliances through recognizable gestures using local radar transmitters and sensors instead of video cameras and receptors with no need for line of sight between the user and the sensor, Patent and Trademark Office records show. Details are being revealed in a string of lengthy applications (US 20160098089, US 20160055201, US 20160054792, US 20160041618, US 20160041617 and US 20150346820) that Google filed two years ago at the PTO and are now being published for open access. The gigahertz frequencies used for the radar fields, and the power at which they operate, are chosen to suit the devices and their working location, the patents said. The radar field may be generated by fixed transmitters in the home or office or store, by a smartphone or smartwatch, they said. Google patents give many examples of radar control. If someone enters “Best Italian restaurant?” as a search term on a mobile device, the device will return much more useful results if the user can assist by sweeping the device over the immediate surroundings, the patents said. In a home or office, fixed transmitters, perhaps embedded in the walls, can bathe the room in a radar field that detects any preprogrammed gesture made by the occupants’ arms or hands, they said. The overriding advantage of using radar detectors, with direct and reflected fields, instead of line-of-sight cameras, is that gesture commands aren't blocked by furniture or walls, the patents said. By combining biometric sensing with gesture recognition, multiple appliances also can be controlled by multiple people, from almost anywhere in the vicinity, they said: This would eliminate any need for people to sit awkwardly where they can touch a screen. Everything can be controlled by waving hands, arms or even legs and feet, the documents said. Google didn’t comment Friday on plans to commercialize the invention.