The new Google Nest thermostat has hit the FCC. Probably air gesture control is used

The new Google Nest thermostat has hit the FCC. Droid life First discovered This list On the government site. The details are sparse, but the details are strange because the list is in sensitive mode. I think there is an air gesture control.

First, RF exposure report Lists the device as a “thermostat” and says it has 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Next, you’ll see a list of devices with a “60GHz transmitter” that weren’t available on previous Nest thermostats. One possible use of 60GHz transmitter is “WiGig, “60 GHz Wi-Fi that can reach 7 Gbps. High-speed data transfer doesn’t seem to be really suitable for thermostats, so another possibility is Project Soli, Google’s first commercialized air gesture system. Last year on Pixel 4.

Project Soli is an air gesture system that Google has developed so far. A compact radar system on chip, Google FCC approval Use Soli in the 57-64 GHz frequency band. Soli’s original pitch was to blow up the hand at 60Ghz and capture the returning signal to detect “less than a millimeter of finger movement”, allowing for very fine gesture control. .. I was able to pinch my thumb and forefinger together and press a button, or rub my two fingers to turn the dial. Soli originally envisioned devices that didn’t have a large touch screen, such as speakers and smartwatches. The Nest thermostat probably fits that description because it doesn’t have a touch screen and instead relies on a rotatable scroll wheel that also acts as the outer body of the thermostat.

Of course, the Pixel 4 version of Project Soli Confused, Shrinking the experimental chip to fit a smartphone meant negating much of the promised “sub-millimeter” accuracy. The Pixel 4 required a large gesture of waving its arm to detect something rather than moving a finger, and the functionality was very verbose given the large touchscreen already on the front of the smartphone. Perhaps a thermostat that is much thicker than a smartphone and doesn’t have to worry about battery life can use a larger, more accurate chip.

So far, Google hasn’t had a big impact on the design of the Nest thermostat. Google I bought Nest After spending $ 3.2 billion in 2014, Nest was run as an independent company under the umbrella of Google (and later Alphabet) for several years. The current flagship thermostat, the 3rd generation Nest, was released in 2015. Nest E Released in 2017. Nest No longer It’s a standalone company and was integrated into Google in 2018. Nest the company by GoogleI / O 2019 Was really dead “Nest” is now a Google sub-brand. Nest and Google still have a lot of confusion, like competing smart home apps, and it looks like they will eventually need to replace all Nest products with the Google version.

Google may be in charge now, but there is rarely a good reason to release an updated version of the thermostat. It’s just a thermostat! It doesn’t require a faster processor or an upgraded connection, so it needs another excuse to boot new hardware. Using Google’s logic, Project Soli’s air gesture seems like a good reason to create a Google version of the Nest thermostat. I don’t know if everyone really wants to wave at the thermostat, but I know what the final marketing will be for Google.