Elliptic Labs Reveal Touchless iPad Via TGUI Stand

Behold, all you kitchen and otherwise dirty-handed users, here is a stand for iPad that'll keep your screen clean as can be. Is it some sort of instant clean screen? Nay! Is it a little elf that comes with you wherever you go to work the iPad instead of you? No way! It's a stand that basically turns your iPad into a completely touchless device. This is Elliptic Labs' Touchless Gesture User Interface technology, and they're banking on it taking the world by storm in just a few short days at CES.

The technology employs an ultrasound "touchless zone" in which your hand can enter and work with the face of the iPad, leaving the screen completely clean and un-fingerprinted. CEO Stain Aldrin had the following to say to MobileMag when they met up early this week: "The idea is that you use touchless gestures to operate primary functions of a docked tablet in situations like when you have wet or greasy hands in the kitchen. In general tablets are made for being handheld. When it is docked you are often walking or standing further away, and then using a finger on the screen involves a change of modality. Rather than bending down, leaning forward or picking it up you can use larger movements a little bit further away to do things like volume up or next song without changing modality."

This tech was first shown off way back in September at the IFA Berlin trade show, now it's set to be blasted off into the rest of the universe at CES 2011. What's best about this stand? It's not just made for iPad – the hardware and sensors are said to be "off the shelf components" and nothing more than a special App to work with the stand is needed to activate it for the whole device. Welcome to a whole touchless world for all sorts of flat devices!

Take a peek at how the technology functions in this related video, also from Elliptic Labs:

[Via MobileMag]