Rock’N’Scroll and Accelon are two motion-enabling technologies from KEYnetik that promise to expand the world of hand-held motion.

Rock’N’Scroll is already out there. Accelon – a nifty, dual-sensor (accelerometer) technology – is just coming out of their development laboratory.

Rock’N’Scroll can work on many different devices, but the easiest to understand is its use on a cell phone. A three-axis accelerometer is embedded into a phone. The enabling software is free and downloadable from the KEYnetik website. The customer installs Rock’N’Scroll on a phone. A simple flick of the wrist moves the user from one icon on the screen to another. The system is able to filter out interference by determining the radius of rotation; so big, sweeping gestures are ignored by the system while little flicks are interpreted as requests for movement from one icon to another.

Rock’N’Scroll is a single sensor application available for Symbian S60 V3 phones with accelerometers (Nokia N95, N95-8GB, N82, and a few others). Beta 1 was released on February 29; Beta 2 is underway. Some of the features of Beta 1 include tilt scrolling, flick menu navigation, screen rotation, push/pull gestures for selections and exit.

Rock’N’Scroll provides same features as a combined gyroscope and accelerometer, allowing for all six degrees of freedom, according to Gene Shkolnikov, vice president and chief operating officer at the Northern Virginia-based firm.

A demonstration of the product on YouTube shows how easy it is to maneuver through a series of photos, flicking the wrist to move forward or back through the album.

3-D object manipulation and camera stabilization are two of the other features in the phone system. The unit’s drop detection allows it to shut itself down before impact.
Perhaps more exciting is the company’s emerging Accelon technology. Basically it links a couple of identically oriented, inexpensive and commercially available accelerometers powered by its own software to create a virtual gyroscope. Accelon can instantly determine the curvature of the trajectory an object (like a phone) is moving on in three-dimensional space.

“We’ve been doing a lot of research and development to define the ideal solution,” Shkolnikov says. The dual-sensor technology lets a device work just like a human’s eyes or ears, in that it allows triangulation. “That lets us figure where the motion is coming from,” Shkolnikov says.

Accelon can read pitch, yaw and roll just like a gyroscope. It makes lateral translations like an accelerometer – adding up to all six degrees of freedom - something that neither the gyroscope nor basic accelerometer can do alone.

He says that Accelon has six degrees of freedom. By coupling more than one device, they can filter out the “noise” caused by erratic motion.
“We triangulate where the motion is coming from,” Shkolnikov explains. “If the motion is coming from the wrist (such as a wrist flick), we read it as a good move. If the motion is coming from the elbow, we figure it is outside the range of motion for manipulating the unit and disregard it.”

The dual sensors can differentiate rotational movement from lateral movement. This means that people can operate a device while walking or running without confusing the phone.
Shkolnikov is quick to point out that the company hopes to look at other applications. Their working prototype is just five or six months old and their working solution was put up less than a month ago (February 29, 2008).

Indeed, KEYnetik itself is a young start-up, but its principals have been working on motion for several years. Their first patent application dates to 2001. Their experimental unit, built in 2001-02, was a large black box connected to a PC. “Everyone was scared by the size of the prototype,” Shkolnikov recalls with a laugh. However, it gave them proof of concept.
In 2006 they had a more practical product, working on an existing mobile phone with accelerometer and printed circuit board and sensors added. They added applications like phone book, call history, photo pages, GPS and some basic games.

The KEYnetik products have opened some eyes. The military likes Accelon’s single-hand motion and its ability to model in 3-D. It also could find a home with in-car navigation devices, PMPs, gaming controls, and specialized handhelds for both the military and medical communities.

“Our potential customers would be manufacturers of accelerometers, handhelds (cell phones, GPS, PMPs, etc.), gaming consoles, or gaming controls, as well as OS developers,” Shkolnikov feels.