If you currently own or are planning on picking up the Samsung Galaxy S4 then it's quite likely that your decision would have been informed, at least in part, by some of the pretty sweet things which you can do with gestures and your eyes. Things like Smart Stay, Smart Pause and Smart Scroll are what we have in mind here. The thing is that we don't actually know very much about these. We know that they're pretty cool features, but until recently we didn't know who was behind them, we naturally assumed it was Samsung.
It turns out that we in fact have a Californian company called 'DigitalOptics' to thank, at least in part, for the technologies which make use of the front camera on the Galaxy S4. The news came to light after it was reported that they 'recently struck a multi-year licensing deal with Samsung to supply its Face Detection and Face Tracking software, which can detect pupils for interface features (think Smart Stay or Smart Pause) and keep tabs on photo subjects.'
We don't know how deep their involvement is, but a multi-year licensing deal suggests that there's plenty more to come from that pupil tracking tech!
One phone which we might see more of this technology employed in is more of rumour at the moment than anything else. According to reports there is the possibility that Samsung are working at creating a version of the Galaxy S4 which is both dust and waterproof in 'the months ahead'. Now that is an insanely broad statement and it could refer to a Galaxy S4 Mini or it could be a total misquote. But, that doesn't change the fact that Samsung's Head of Gulf Electronics, Young Soo Kim, said it the the launch party for the Galaxy S4 in Dubai!
What do you guys think? Would you like to see a waterproof Galaxy S4 and would you like to see the gestures and eye tracking features extended? Let us know in the comments below!
Via Engadget and AndroidBeat.
