| Using the Air gestures feature |
If it is inconvenient for you to operate the computer by touching it with your hands, you can use Air gestures to swipe left, right, up, or down on the screen, or to pause or resume a video.
How Air gestures work
The computer speaker sends out an ultrasonic signal, which reflects back ultrasonic echo signals when it encounters a dynamic hand action. The microphone receives the ultrasonic echo signals and processes the signals to identify their specific characteristics, and is thus able to distinguish different Air gestures.
Enabling or disabling gestures, viewing gesture guides, and trying different gestures
- Open PC Manager, click the Settings icon, and select Settings.
- Click Accessibility. Under Air gestures, you can select a gesture to go to the gesture details screen, enable or disable the gesture, view the gesture guide, or click TRY NOW.
- Air scroll up/down: Place your palm towards the screen (with your fingertips facing upwards) or your back towards the screen (with your fingertips facing downwards) at a distance of about one arm from the screen, and swipe your arm downwards or upwards. You can turn pages when viewing pictures using Huawei Image Viewer, playing PPT files, reading Word files, or browsing PDF files, or adjust the volume when watching videos.
- Air scroll forwards/backwards: Place your palm towards the screen (with your fingertips facing right) or your back towards the screen (with your fingertips facing left). Place your arm about one arm away from the screen and swipe your arm left or right. You can turn pages when viewing pictures using Huawei Image Viewer, playing PPT files, reading Word files, or browsing PDF files, or adjust the playback progress when watching videos.
- Air press: Place your palm towards the screen (with your fingertips facing upwards) at a distance of about one arm from the screen, and press your hand slightly towards the screen. You can pause or resume a video.
- Air scroll up/down: Place your palm towards the screen (with your fingertips facing upwards) or your back towards the screen (with your fingertips facing downwards) at a distance of about one arm from the screen, and swipe your arm downwards or upwards. You can turn pages when viewing pictures using Huawei Image Viewer, playing PPT files, reading Word files, or browsing PDF files, or adjust the volume when watching videos.
Using Air gestures in supported apps:
The following apps support Air gestures: Microsoft-Office-PPT, WPS-Office-PPT, Microsoft-Office-Word, Adobe-PDF, WPS-Office-PDF, Tencent Video, iQIYI Video, Youku Video, Huawei Image Viewer, Google Browser, Edge Browser, and HUAWEI Browser. If you have enabled Air gestures in PC Manager, you can use Air gestures whenever you use any of these apps.
After PC Manager has been updated to version 12.0.1.21 or later, the hand icon will be displayed on the right of the taskbar when you use Air gestures (for example, in Office-PPT Slide Show Mode). You can click the icon to access the Air gestures settings screen, or right-click it to exit Air gestures.
You can also determine the Air gestures status based on the colour of the hand icon.
- White: Air gestures are enabled.
- Green: Air gestures are available. For example, when viewing Office-PPT, place your palm 10–60 cm away from the computer microphone and swipe up to turn to the next page of the PPT file.
- Red: Air gestures are unavailable. Move the cursor to the hand icon to display the reason why the Air gestures feature is unavailable.
When you exit the app in which you are using Air gestures (for example, Office-PPT exits Slide Show Mode), wait for about 10 seconds. The hand icon will disappear.
(1) In Office-PPT or WPS-PPT, use Air gestures to turn pages.
In Office-PPT or WPS-PPT, open a multi-page PPT file, set the file to Slide Show Mode, wait for about 3 seconds, and place your hand 10–60 cm away from the computer microphone.
- Swipe up or left: Turn to the next page of the PPT file.
- Swipe down or right: Turn to the previous page of the PPT file.
(2) In Office-Word, use Air gestures to slide files or turn pages.
In Office-Word, open a multi-page Word file, set the file to Read Mode, wait for about 3 seconds, and place your hand 10–60 cm away from the computer microphone.
- Swipe up or left: Turn to the next page of the Word file.
- Swipe down or right: Turn to the previous page of the Word file.
(3) In Adobe-PDF or WPS-Office-PDF, use Air gestures to slide files or turn pages.
In Adobe-PDF or WPS-Office-PDF, open a multi-page PDF file, wait for about 3 seconds, and place your hand 10–60 cm away from the computer microphone.
- Swipe up or left: Turn to the next page of the PDF file.
- Swipe down or right: Turn to the previous page of the PDF file.
(4) In Tencent Video, iQIYI Video, and Youku Video, use Air gestures to increase or decrease the volume, fast-forward or rewind a video, or pause a video.
In Tencent Video, iQIYI Video, and Youku Video, open a video, wait for about 3 seconds, and place your hand 10–60 cm away from the microphone of the computer.
- Air swipe up and down: Swipe up to increase the video volume. Swipe down to decrease the video volume.
- Air swipe left or right: Swipe right to fast forward the video. Swipe left to rewind the video.
- Air press: Press your palm towards the screen to pause the video. Air press again to play the video.
(5) In Huawei Image Viewer, use Air gestures to switch images.
Open a folder that contains multiple pictures. Right-click any picture and go to Open with > Huawei Image Viewer from the shortcut menu. Wait for about 3 seconds and place your hand 10–60 cm away from the computer microphone.
- Swipe up or left: Turn to the next image.
- Swipe down or right: Turn to the previous image.
(6) In browser apps, use Air gestures to browse web pages and control video apps.
Swipe left and right to switch between tabs, and swipe up and down to scroll through pages. When you use a browser to watch a video, swipe up and down to adjust the volume (for some apps, you need to move the cursor to the volume of the video player in the browser), swipe left and right to adjust the playback progress, and air press to pause and resume the video.
Precautions to take when using Air gestures:
- To use Air gestures, you need to call the microphone permission. Air gestures are unavailable when you insert a wired headset (or a speaker), connect your computer to Bluetooth earphones (or a speaker), mute the speaker, or mute the microphone. It is recommended that the volume of your computer be higher than 40%. Otherwise, the accuracy of Air gestures may be affected.
- It is recommended that you place your computer on a horizontal desktop when using Air gestures. If you place your computer on an object such as a computer stand, the recognition of Air gestures may be affected.
- If the computer cannot identify your Air gestures, check whether you are gesturing correctly. Place your hand 10–60 cm away from the computer microphone, slowly swipe your hand at an angle greater than 70 degrees, and at an interval of more than 1 second.
- If a pop-up window suddenly appears on the computer, or the computer automatically switches to another app when you are using Air gestures to operate an app, the app that you were using will lose focus, and Air gestures will not be able to be used. Click the corresponding app to place it in focus again. Then you can continue using Air gestures.
- If your computer is connected to another device (such as a monitor or projector) and you want to continue using Air gestures, please set the speaker and microphone to the local computer. (Right-click the speaker icon on the taskbar, choose Sound settings from the shortcut menu, and set Output and Input in Sound to the speaker and microphone of the local computer.)
- Air gestures take advantage of your computer's AI computing and audio capabilities, resulting in high power consumption. It is recommended that you keep your computer's battery level above 20%.