‘Top-10' Phone OEM Signs ‘Proximity Sensor’ License With Elliptic

Elliptic Labs signed a license agreement with a “top-10 global smartphone manufacturer” for use of Elliptic’s software-based “proximity sensor” technology, said the Norwegian AI company Friday. Proximity sensing detects when users hold their phones up to their ears during a call, allowing the smartphone to turn off its display and disable its screen’s touch functionality, said Elliptic. “This keeps the user’s ear or cheek from triggering unwanted actions during the call, such as hanging up or dialing numbers. Turning off the screen also helps conserve battery life.” Replacing hardware sensors with software embodiments, as Elliptic’s technology does, reduces device cost, said the company.