The Xperia Sola and ‘Floating Navigation’

The Xperia line of smartphones is starting to become a major brand of Sony. With the announcement of the Xperia Play, Sony touted the fact that it was the only smartphone on the market that was truly designed for gaming. It had a pull out game controller with actual buttons, rather than simply using a touch screen. Well the next iteration of the series, known as the Xperia Sola, also sports an interesting selling point.

The Xperia Sola, according to Sony, will feature floating navigation. This means that users won’t have to actually touch the screen but rather can float their hand above it and use their fingers as a mouse. These were Sony’s words when explaining the technology:

Sony’s unique floating touch lets consumers navigate the web by hovering their finger above the screen so it acts like a moving curser, without actually having to touch the screen

The first question anyone would have of this is how is this even possible? Certain concepts have shown part of the phone breaking off and gripping to a persons finger and the phone then being able to track. Sony may use this type technology or they could be talking floating navigation with just the naked finger. In that case, how would one be able to click an app or link without actually touching the screen.

And then of course there is the bigger question of whether this feature is at all desirable. The tech behind it is cool, but what benefit does it add other than preventing your screen from getting dirty? When people are already so used the concept of touching the screen and using hand gestures, trying to break into the main stream with floating navigation isn’t the easiest thing.

We will be able to find out soon the potential new tech behind Sony’s phone and see if it is more than a gimmick once it releases in the second quarter of 2012.