Fellow Chinese company TCL, which recently got some attention as the company supplying the electronics portion of Ikea’s new Uppleva home entertainment systems, is also bringing out a line of Android powered televisions. But these televisions will have a kinetic twist: you’ll be able to control them by shaking your remote at them, thanks to an integrated technology from Hillcrest Labs known as the Freespace engine.
The technology, which has previously appeared in selected LG televisions and the Roku 2 XS multimedia-streaming box, will appear in TCL’s V7500 3D television, a slim-bezel set powered by Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
How does it work? In addition to the usual controls on the remote control, the remote will be able to sense when you’re rotating it from side to side, dipping it forward or raising the tip upwards, giving users more control over on-screen menus, or potentially acting as a game controller (ala the Wii).
Speaking as someone who occasionally waves the remote at the screen in frustration at the stupidity on the screen, here’s hoping that this motion technology doesn’t wind up changing the channel during a Remote-Wag of Fury. But that could actually end up as a plus, come to think of it.
The TCL V7500 is set to hit China any day now, and will launch in other regions of the world later in 2012.
