HSINCHU, TAIWAN--(Marketwired - Oct 23, 2013) - ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), Taiwan's largest and one of the world's leading high-tech research and development institutions, today introduced iAT (i-Air Touch) Technology, one of the first see-through display and air-touch input technologies for computers, wearable computers and mobile devices allowing a user's hand to be free of any physical device. Wearing a pair of special eyeglasses, users can see and interact with a virtual input device (e.g. touchscreen or mouse) floating in air, while still seeing and interacting with the real world around them. i-Air Touch is available now for licensing by computing, consumer electronic and mobile companies. ITRI will receive a 2013 R&D 100 Award in November for this breakthrough technology.

Instead of controlling wearable computers with head movements, voice commands, touching the devices or entering commands into the app on a smartphone, i-Air Touch users can type on the "floating" keypad, keyboard, mouse or touch panel insuring flexibility, accuracy, privacy and convenience on-the-go.

i-Air Touch includes three components: see-through eyeglasses, an internal camera technology, and an air-touch interface. The see-through eyeglasses display data, images, and input devices to both eyes or only to one eye. The camera scans for and records input, and the air-touch interface relays input from the camera to the eyeglasses displaying a response to the user. The camera technology can be integrated with an existing camera in a wearable computer, and the air-touch interface can be integrated into the firmware and software system of a wearable computer, making it cost-effective to incorporate i-Air Touch in existing wearable-computer designs.

The DDDR (defined distance with defined range) camera is the key functional component of i-Air Touch and conserves battery power, a major issue facing manufacturers of many wearable computers.

i-Air Touch commercialization is currently underway and available for transfer to companies worldwide. ITRI holds eight international patents on i-Air Touch technology (Taiwan, China, and the U.S). Companies interested in licensing i-Air Touch should contact ITRI at 1-408-428-9988, 0800@itri.org.tw or visit http://www.itri.org.tw/award/eng/index.htm.