New capacitive sensing technique brings the concept of gesture detection into the real world.

Touché is a form of capacitive touch sensing, the same principle underlying the types of touchscreens used in most smartphones.

But instead of sensing electrical signals at a single frequency, like the typical touchscreen, Touché monitors capacitive signals across a broad range of frequencies.

This Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing (SFCS) makes it possible to not only detect a “touch event,” but to recognize complex configurations of the hand or body that is doing the touching. An object thus could sense how it is being touched, or might sense the body configuration of the person doing the touching.

Watch the video to get a sense of the applications for this tech. For example, you might grasp a door handle in one way to leave a “do not disturb” message, another way to leave a “back in 5 minutes” message. The video offers a thoughtful peek at this world. Seems like the tip of the iceberg. Great stuff.