Showing off a shiny new smartphone is one of the best parts of upgrading your mobile device, but what if you could use your phone without ever taking it out of your pocket? That's the future that German researchers from the Hasso Plattner Institute are shooting for with the first prototype of what they call the "Imaginary Phone."
The system utilizes your current smartphone (an iPhone is used in the prototype), and maps the touchscreen to the palm of your hand. You then simply touch your palm wherever you would normally tap on the screen. Your phone reacts to the input as though you were touching it yourself, allowing you to answer calls (via speakerphone) and even utilize apps.
While this might all seem like black magic — the video above does a good job of hiding the bulky prototype hardware — the system currently requires the user to wear a large headset, complete with a depth and motion-sensing camera, as well as a wifi transmitter to send the gesture inputs to the phone itself.
In order for the system to be usable in the first place, a person needs to be intimately familiar with their smartphone. During testing, the research team found that users who had memorized the position of icons on their phones were able to successfully launch the desired app 4 out of 5 times. So while there's clearly some work to be done in making the system a bit more portable and user-friendly, you might be answering your palm before you know it.
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