MediaTek is prepping to gear up China's smartphones with Hotknot, its newly invented proximity technology.

Hotknot is supposed to provide a cheaper alternative to NFC, requiring neither antenna nor RF communication chip. Hotknot homes in on touch functions, enabling proximity through a new generation of capacitor touch driver ICs designed for touch screens.

More specifically, Hotknot will use a touch sensor chip to send communication protocols, while a gravity sensor (G-sensor) ensures the actual contact, and a proximity sensor (P-sensor) detects the presence of nearby objects, thus verifying that the two objects are close enough.

"What NFC can do, Hotknot can also do," HaoJung Li, product marketing manager of MediaTek's wireless communications business unit, told us Tuesday in an interview here.

By usurping NFC, MediaTek is illustrating its growing confidence in the global market. The company wants to be seen as a leader, rather than a follower, by establishing a new spec and driving a new technology into the mobile world.

By: DocMemory
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