Most people are familiar with touchless user interfaces through video game systems such as Microsoft Kinect. As the technology emerges, motion sensing will make its way into more devices, including those in the medical space. MED sister site EDN has an article by Alan Sy, an application engineer for Silicon Laboratories’ human-interface products, about how the advent of highly integrated proximity/ambient-light sensors has made implementing active infrared proximity-motion sensing easier. 

Sy explores the two primary methods that enable gesture sensing—position-based sensing, which involves finding gestures based on the calculated location of an object, and phase-based sensing, which is based on the timing of the changes in signals to determine the direction of an object’s motion. He covers hardware considerations as well as the advantages and drawbacks of associated with both methods.

Head over to EDN to check out the article on designing IR gesture-sensing systems.
 

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