ENGLEWOOD, CO – With emerging virtual reality games, smartwatches, smart TVs and other consumer electronics and IT applications entering the market, shipments of gesture sensing control user interfaces are poised to grow 10% year-over-year, to reach 1.8 billion units in 2015, says IHS.

While touch-screen technology works well in smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices with flat panel displays, it is less suitable for use in some new and emerging applications, says IHS. Therefore, gesture sensing control will fill an industry need gap. 

“Gesture sensing control will not compete with touch screens, but will instead be complementary, because each technology is appropriate for specific applications,” said Calvin Hsieh, director for touch and user interfaces for IHS. “Smart TVs, for example, are not good candidates for touch screens because they are too far from viewers. On the other hand, gesture sensing control is especially suitable for future immersive augmented reality and virtual reality computing.”

Optical-based 3D depth sensing technologies – such as time of flight, stereo vision and structured light for freehand gesture sensing control – will account for 66% of sensor unit shipments for game console applications in 2015, as the use of controller-based sensors becomes more common, says IHS.

As a result of Intel’s promoting RealSense, gesture-sensing control with 3D depth-sensing ability is expected to grow 43% in 2015 year-over-year, overtaking 2D webcam technology, in notebook PC applications in 2015. Apple TV will also likely adopt the structured light technology Apple acquired from PrimeSense, which is expected to lead to 35% year-over-year growth in gesture sensing control for smart TV applications.