IT鈥橲 a couch potato鈥檚 dream come true. Teletouch, a program that runs on a smartphone, can dim the lights, turn off an alarm, or even double as a television remote.
To use this universal remote, a user points their smartphone鈥檚 camera at an appliance that has been fitted with a Wi-Fi node. Vision software on the phone recognises what it is looking at and the phone then looks up the IP address of the appliance. The user classifies it as something that can be switched off and on, say, or turned up or down. The system remembers the setting, and then users are free to operate the object simply by pressing buttons on a virtual control panel. Teletouch can also control objects that are within Wi-Fi range but out of view.
Teletouch鈥檚 developer, Pranav Mistry of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says 鈥渨hat you see is what you get鈥� has long been the principle behind graphical user interfaces. He wanted to take that further. 鈥淲ith Teletouch what you see on the screen is what you can touch and control鈥� in the real world, he says.
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Mistry will demonstrate Teletouch at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum in Mumbai in February 2012.
