Forget Xbox, Microsoft wants Kinect in our phones

Touch, voice, type, and gestures. Those are some of the ways we can interact with our phones these days.

According to several sources, Microsoft is working on a new flagship codenamed McLaren. Not only will this mysterious Windows Phone carry a massive camera like the Lumia 1020, it also has 3D Touch which would allow you to operate apps using motion gestures.

While the 3D Touch features are still hidden in Microsoft’s basement, leaked sources suggest that we can expect it to be similar to Leap Motion‘s technology and even Microsoft’s Kinect.

This would mean you’d be able to operate the smartphone’s screen simply by hovering over Live Tiles and poke the air in order to interact with them. WPCentral even goes as far as to suggests heat tracking.

As awesome as that all sounds, some more plausible subtle features may include reacting to the user’s grip or allowing users to poke at Tiles without touching the screen to view extra information from an app. Other features could include things like hovering your hand over the phone to answer a call, for instance.

WPCentral and @evleaks have been covering Microsoft’s rumoured smartphone lineup for 2014 say that a follow-up to the Lumia 1020 is in the works. McLaren carries the most innovative features but is expected to be revealed alongside Rock, Tesla and Superman.

Samsung has tried to incorporate motion detection technology with the Galaxy S4 but it was nothing more than glitchy and gimmicky. Could Microsoft be the one to crack the code necessary for this tech to work intuitively?

We’ll have to wait and see in November when Microsoft is rumoured to announce it together with a couple of other devices.