A recent report by Juniper Research predicts that the market for human interface technology will reach $1.2 billion by 2019. Currently Western Europe and North America receive the most revenue from mobile consumer services that use human interface technologies due to the prevalence of smartphones.
Revenues from Mobile Consumer Services Using Human Interface Technologies.
Source:Juniper Research
Smartphones have especially impacted our expectations of what the user interface looks like and how we interact with our mobiles. Before touchscreens we had to input text through the number keys. Mobiles are constantly being used in a range of environments for a broader range of functions. This has forced manufactures to constantly innovate new modes of handset control that allows consumers to operate it without touching it or maybe even without looking at it!
Gesture and touch-less technologies stretch much further than mobile industry phones. We come across them every day and we might not even realize it.
There are 5 main aspects of gesture technology
- Wave/movement- This includes Used by automatic doors, motion detectors, sanitary facilities (sinks and hand dryers) gaming consoles
- Iris scanning- Used by border control forces, security authentication, disability aids
- Facial- photo manipulation apps, security authentication (phones/ computers)
- Fingerprint- security authentication
- Voice- Automated phone menus(search)
Biometric Security
The advancement of smartphones in the past 20 years has been staggering. We can now transfer money and make payments, send and receive emails and create and send documents. However, now that smartphones are now able to deal with essential activities, the need to improve their security has grown. We have user identification, such as PIN and passwords, however biometric authentication is likely to grow in popularity due to its effectiveness (you can’t forget or fake your own face or fingerprint!)
Juniper Research estimate that handsets with 2 or more cameras will be the absolute norm, poising the human interface sector for dynamic growth.
How will gesture technology impact marketing and advertising? Perhaps one day we will have advertisements and billboards that can detect when someone walks by, scan their phone for recent searches, and then display an appropriate ad for that individual.
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