We all know what motion detection is. I am sure you either own or have seen such items as motion detecting lights and doors. Up until recently that technology was mostly reserved for making life a bit easier at your supermarket so the door opens for you, or safer at home, when you walk to your front door at night and lights go on so you aren`t standing there in the dark looking for your keys. With the introduction of Nintendo`s Wii video game system, never before has the consumer seen the use of motion detection for just pure pleasure.



In the Nintendo Wii, a game user will motion with their hands, arms etc., with the controller in their and the game system will pick up that motion, transferring it to what is on the screen. It is this same technology that is now starting to be implemented into cell phone use.

According to Amanda C. Kooser of Entrepreneur magazine, "motion sensing devices that use accelerometers aren`t new." Accelerometers are measuring devices for specific external forces. "However, integrating them into cell phones has been slow going," Kooser claims.

One company that is hoping to speed the process up of getting the technology to market is GestureTek. They make a product called EyeMobile, that is used in gesture recognition. The eye mobile links up with your cell phone`s camera to help detect motion. With that motion detection it simulates many features you currently do by hand, such as scrolling, turning pages and so on.

After speaking with with Francis MacDougall, Kooser says, the cofounder and CTO of GestureTek claims, "The idea of making a much more intuitive way to access the phone`s functions without having to access all of those small buttons is the major advantage."

According to Kooser, Verizon is currently the only cell phone servce provider that uses some sort of motion detection in their phones, but it is used mainly for games that come with it. In the no to distant future, motion detection for your cell phone will enable you to surf the web easier, browse photos, navigate maps, zooming for various applications and so much more.

The idea behind using motion on cell phones is to make them "more user friendly for increasingly advanced applicaions," Kooser says.

By: Bruce A. Tucker