Few will deny that Samsung Gear VR headset is a really cool gadget, and the good news is that Samsung will likely make it even cooler and more intuitive in the future. For example, why fiddle with the device’s touchpad while it’s mounted on your head and you’re browsing the Internet when you can simply stretch your neck for a bit and wave in order to select and click whatever it is that you want to select and click? That’s the basic idea of Samsung’s latest patent which unofficially surfaced on the Internet just yesterday.
More specifically, the South Korean consumer electronics manufacturer is working on a sensor which can be installed on the side of the Gear VR headset and is capable of in-air gesture detection which triggers clickable events. So, would the act of opening something like a photo theoretically be as easy as waving in a couple of directions until it’s selected and then doing one final gesture in your hand in order to actually view it? As a matter of fact, it would be even easier than that as Samsung’s latest invention connects cursor control to head movement while waving is only necessary for confirmation, i.e. actual clicking. As the patent which can be viewed at the link below explains, users can move their head left, right, up, and down for the purposes of cursor control and general navigation, while focusing on a part of an image, activating an app icon, or selecting a menu option is as easy as waving once over the side of the headset where the motion-detecting sensor is located. Unfortunately, the discovered parts of these documents don’t go into great detail regarding the actual specifics of Samsung’s latest invention so we can’t be sure whether this sensor can differ between different motions, i.e. gestures. There’s no doubt the actual documentation is much more specific as it was just published by the US Patent and Trademark Office in late February which surely wouldn’t have happened if the patent was as vague as “the sensor knows when you wave and pretends you’ve actually pressed a button when that happens”.
In case you’re still on the fence about whether to purchase Gear VR or not and also happen to be looking for a new smartphone, you can still get the headset for free if you order either the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge by the end of the month.