Korea’s Pantech to Use Kinect-Like Gesture Recognition in Android Phones

Korean phone maker Pantech, best known in the U.S. for low-end Android and messaging phones, hopes to make a name for itself by adding gesture recognition a la Microsoft’s Kinect.

The technology, which comes from Israel’s eyeSight Mobile Technologies, will be part of a new Vega LTE line of phones due to hit the market in November. Gestures are useful, eyeSight says, at times when touch input is impractical, such as when driving or wearing gloves.

Among the functions able to be done via gesture will be answering calls and playing music.

A YouTube video shows the technology in action, with a woman — hands covered in batter — using a wave of the hand to answer the phone.

Microsoft developed its Kinect technology using a mixture of in-house development as well as technology from at least two other Israeli startups — PrimeSense and 3DV Systems.