Nokia showcases new gesture controls

Nokia has showcased its next-generation gesture control idea, a function it has called “natural interactions”.

The current generation of gesture controls on most handsets are somewhat limited, but with some of the proposals outlined in Nokia's report this could be set to change.

Focus groups were quizzed in various global locations, and asked for features that they would like to see implemented.

One of our favourite suggestions was the idea of tapping phones together to exchange information, although an over-zealous touch could prove disastrous. Also proposed by the focus groups was the ability to silence a phone by staring intently at it and to skip tracks by err, skipping.

Some of the suggestions from Nokia that weren't warmly welcomed by the research included waving the phone in a figure of eight to highlight the current location on a map and kissing the phone to send a text message.

Quite what exactly the commercial result of this research will be is unclear at this early stage but let's face it, anything a bit more exciting than turning your phone face-down to silence it will be a bonus.