Samsung SelfieType App Gives Your Phone A Camera Keyboard

The Samsung SelfieType project was shown in more detail today at CES 2020 as an invisible projector keyboard for your phone. This system utilizes front-facing camera sensor systems in modern smart phones (like the Galaxy S10) to track the position of a users' fingers. The phone is propped up in front of the user and the users' hands are positioned like they'd be in front of a WASD keyboard – but the keyboard does not exist!

In the video below you'll see the SelfieType system as initially revealed back in December of 2019. This is part of the Samsung C-Lab CES 2020 collection, showing how a Samsung Galaxy smartphone can utilize its front-facing array of camera sensors to create a keyboard that MIGHT feel more natural for a person to use than an on-screen thumb-centric keyboard. NOTE: This system is shown on several Samsung devices.

In the video above you'll see the Samsung Galaxy S10, the Samsung Galaxy Fold, and a Samsung tablet. This is almost certainly the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6. It's an odd choice, then, that the company would show a new sort of keyboard on a device which is almost always promoted with its magnetically-attached hardware keyboard. But what's newest is newest!

The most interesting of the three devices shown here is the Galaxy Fold. Not just because the device has a folding display, but because the device could, potentially, be capable of using this technology without any external prop. One might expect that it'd be able to fold up in an L-shape and allow its front-facing sensor to do the trick. However, as the video shows, the user (apparently) needs a coffee cup to keep the device standing in the L-shape position – gravity wins again!

If this SelfieType app ever becomes available to the public or is given to the devices in the video as a software update, we'll be sure to let you know! For now, it's only a demo.