1 March 2004

Atrua Technologies, previously known mostly for drawing simultaneous investments from vendor giants Nokia and Ericsson, has launched its Atrua Wings solution, a new take on mobile device and service navigation that relies on finger movements on or across a tiny navigation bar on a device’s keypad.

The Campbell, Calif., company demonstrated the solution with its GSM handset partner, Purple Labs, at last week’s 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France. Atrua Wings is based on a proprietary development in haptic processing technology—"the science of human touch," said Marc Ostrowski, director of marketing at Atrua Technologies.

Atrua’s HaptorXD haptic processing technology makes use of fingerprint recognition but also interprets "what kind of touch is being applied to the phone’s navigation bar," Ostrowski said. HaptorXD consists of three basic elements: low-memory HapticWare algorithms that can recognize fingerprints and various finger movements; the SenTru low-power and lightweight haptic sensor; and the Flexi-Connex ultra-thin interface that looks to be slightly wider than the width of the average fingertip and can be mounted above the keypad on most types of mobile phones.

Customers using devices with Atrua Wings can get the benefits of these processing elements by applying different types of finger movements on the interface. For instance, users can play road race games on their phones by pressing a fingertip to the bar and rotating it as they would a steering wheel. Finger swipes also can be used to conduct m-commerce applications quicker and more securely than having to use the keypad to type in a password.

Users need to register their fingerprints with an Atrua Wings device before using it. The HaptorXD processor analyzes the ridges in fingers and other details to ensure reliable authentication and usage, Ostrowski said.

Not many carriers have publicly acknowledged the potential of haptic processing yet, NTT DoCoMo has published its own requirements for accuracy of such solutions. "DoCoMo requires less than 1% of false negatives, and less than .01% false positives," Ostrowski said. "Our solution has tested at .05% false negatives, and .001% false positives."

He added that the company so far has been asked to supply carriers and vendors with demonstration handsets possessing the technology, "but we’re hoping that network operators start to pressure their vendors for it."