The future of gesture control could be snapped right onto your existing smartphone. That’s the concept behind Fuffr, an iPhone case that turns the empty space around your phone into a Leap Motion-style gestural interface.
The unfortunately-named Fuffr is being developed by a team of engineers in Stockholm, who uploaded their first demo video last month and are offering free developer kits on their website. The prototype case can track all kinds of gestures, including multi-touch interactions and pinch-to-zoom. In effect, it increases your phone’s tiny interface by several magnitudes, giving you hugely increased precision that can be used in all sorts of ways.
For example, it could give you a larger working area while sketching, surfing Google Maps, or any number of other interaction-heavy activities:
Or check out how one developer created a Fuffr version of Flappy Bird:
Apps that need a fair amount of screen space would be far easier to use from your phone too:
Right now, Fuffr is mum on exactly how the case works, but according to Geek.com, it’s not using your iPhone’s internal sensors at all. Instead, the case contains a motion sensor that communicates with your phone through Bluetooth LE. In Fuffr’s three videos, you can see a small LED tracking light blinking in the upper righthand-corner of the case, which seems to support that theory.
When will you be able to buy Fuffr? It seems fairly far out — the company is hiring for scads of positions and offering up dev kits by request right now. But it’s incredible to imagine that a peripheral accessory as simple as a plastic case could transform the functional UI of nearly any smartphone. [Fuffr; Geek.com]