As you may know, the technology was also used in the Sony Xperia sola smart phone back in 2012. The feature let the user to select links and other content by hovering the finger above the screen (kind of like clicking once in PC operating systems while the double-click would be actually pressing on the screen).
Samsung will allegedly use Atmel’s brand new maXTouch S controller for this feature, according to the Korean DDaily website. The controller will provide the same functionality as the Sony sola but with a significant less power consumption.
Another phone that could do this was the Pantech Vega LTE phone, which was launched in 2011. The phone was sold exclusively in Korea, to the detriment of the rest of us. The hover select ability on the Pantech Vega smart phone was made possible using the front-facing camera to detect and follow the user’s finger.
We should not get carried away with this whole touchless gesture thing, as this is just a rumor. But as with any Samsung Galaxy S IV rumors, we don’t have to wait that much to see if there is any truth to it.
The Samsung Galaxy S IV is rumored to be launched as soon as the 14th of February in Russia, just in time for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Samsung is a partner of the 2013 Winter Olympics, so they could might as well do the same stunt they did with the S3 in 2012 when they announced the phone at the Olympic Games in London.
Besides this hover select feature, the S4 is rumored to have a 1080p screen with a new kind of pixels: the diamond shape kind. Also, the S4 is rumored to come with a 1.8GHz quad or octacore processor and with the brand new Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean software version. The phone is also rumored to come with a wireless charging dock.
[Source: ddaily.co.kr]