Welcome to Project Soli
Why Hacker News recommends it
Referenced for years as the go-to example of fine gesture input, often in discussions of keyboard replacements and later its appearance in the Pixel 4.
What it is
Google ATAP's 2015 introduction to Project Soli, a radar-based sensor on a chip that tracks sub-millimeter hand motions for gesture interaction in small devices.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2015 to 2019.
What Hacker News said
Recommends melling · 2019-10 · on “Soli”
Google finally ships a research project in a real product and people don’t seem to understand the usefulness. Human nature for some reason often devolves to “what’s the point?” Here’s the 2015 announcement. There’s a lot of potential. Maybe we’d all benefit from “imagine what’s now possible “ [this video]
Cites melling · 2015-07 · on “Pens Are Making a High-Tech Comeback”
Better pen input would be great, especially for drawing. How about some form of chorded keyboard or glove? A chorded keyboard was demonstrated in 1968 by Engelbart: [LINK] Google's Soli project might lead to better input: [this video]
Cites melling · 2015-08 · on “Proton: Multitouch Gestures as Regular Expressions [pdf]”
How long before gestures move off the screen surface? This technology got off to an exciting start but it quickly hit a wall. It was disappointing, for example, when Microsoft had to unbundle the Kinect. Microsoft's Kinect - 2010 Leap Motion - 2010 Intel Real Sense - [LINK] Google's Soli chip - 2016 - [this video] Google's Touch Sensitive Fabric: [LINK]
Cites melling · 2015-09 · on “OptiKey – Full computer control and speech with your eyes”
This tool is for people who can't use their hands, of course. For the average person, we're pretty close to being able to use voice instead of typing. [LINK] [LINK] Throw in eye tracking and precise gestures ( [this video] ) and the keyboard isn't necessary.
Cites melling · 2015-10 · on “Using a Custom Keyboard for CSS”
It would be great if some of the repetitive tasks didn't even require a keyboard but rather use subtle gestures, eye tracking, and voice commands. Leap Motion, for example, never panned out but Google's Soli project might get us there: [this video] Throw in better autocompletion ( [LINK] ) and software development becomes more precise and less repetitive.
Cites melling · 2015-10 · on “How Long Will We Keep Typing?”
No one said that the solution has to be all speech. Throw in some small gestures and that'll be faster than reaching for a key. [this video] Throw in eye-tracking and you can pick out any word quickly.
Cites melling · 2016-02 · on “Ultrasound technology lets you touch and manipulate virtual objects”
Gesture based computing is almost here in some form. Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft are all working on it: Apple: [LINK] Intel Real Sense - [LINK] Google's Soli chip - [this video] Microsoft shipped the Kinect 6 years ago. The need for hand tracking with VR headsets should give it another boost. By the 20th anniversary of Minority Report? [LINK]
Cites melling · 2016-02 · on “An engineer replaced four monitors with Meta glasses”
"The keyboard is the only thing I need, except for the glasses." I think this loses a lot of appeal until we can throw away the keyboard. We should be able to do better. Hopefully, Google ships this silicon this year: [this video] I'd rather have those monitors and no keyboard.