Microsoft shows off a touchscreen that can predict your movements

Microsoft's latest research project may make you wish you had a Windows Phone.

The company showed off a new, still experimental, display technology Thursday that uses sensors to predict your movements before you touch a smartphone's touchscreen,

Dubbed "pre-touch sensing," the tech uses sensors embedded in smartphones to predict how and when you will touch the display. It can detect interactions with the touchscreen itself as well as how you are holding the phone. 

One example of this in action is a video player app. When you move your hand near the display, the app automatically surfaces the playback controls before you touch the screen. Similarly, if you're using the phone one-handed, the controls will appear only on the side where your hand is.

Via Giphy

But, as Microsoft points out in its demo video, the technology could also have interesting applications for games, web browsing and just about any app you use on your phone today.

“It uses the hands as a window to the mind,” Ken Hinckley, a principal researcher at Microsoft, said of the project in a post detailing the experiment. 

Though Microsoft showed off the technology on a Windows Phone, the project is still in an early phase and it's unclear if there are plans to bring it to consumer devices. Still, it offers an intriguing look into what a future Windows Phone (or Surface Phone ) device could look like.

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