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Input Devices Patents

Samsung Galaxy Glass Patent Plans To Turn Fingers Into a Keyboard 63

Posted by timothy from the this-and-google-glass-equals-full-societal-breakdown dept.
rjmarvin writes "Samsung looks to have found a way around voice commands for smart glasses by projecting an augmented reality keyboard onto users' hands. Galaxy Glass wearers' thumbs are used as input devices, tapping different areas of their fingers where various keys are virtually mapped. According to the August 2013 patent filing with the WIPO and South Korea's Intellectual Property Office, Samsung states that voice controls are too imprecise a technology, which are too heavily impacted by the noise levels of the surrounding environment."
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Samsung Galaxy Glass Patent Plans To Turn Fingers Into a Keyboard More

Samsung Galaxy Glass Patent Plans To Turn Fingers Into a Keyboard

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  • How about glass that doesn't break within 3 months (Score:3, Informative)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Thursday March 06, 2014 @05:58PM (#46423985) Homepage Journal

    I find typing on a flat surface doesn't work, as my fingers are curiously all of different lengths.

    • I find typing on a flat surface doesn't work, as my fingers are curiously all of different lengths.

      Of course your fingers are longer in the middle. How else are you supposed to reach the 3 & 8 keys?

    • try typing on your fingers using your thumb... that's gonna make carpal tunnel syndrome look like a day at the beach!

      It reminds me of the attempt to replace mice with gestures: cute thirty seconds, painful in under an hour.

  • I wonder how long before we accept that we will have to wear batteries to power the MRI that reads out brainwaves and turns them into text. It will happen.
  • Mommy what is that man doing with his hands?

  • Prior Art? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Gryle ( 933382 ) on Thursday March 06, 2014 @06:13PM (#46424143)
    I've seen laser projection keyboards for many years. Can someone with some technical know-how tell me why this isn't prior art?

    • Re:Prior Art? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Verdatum ( 1257828 ) on Thursday March 06, 2014 @06:39PM (#46424343)
      Projecting specifically onto the fingers in the realm of augmented reality, thus requiring tracking the fingers' position as they move, and then gauging when each portion of the fingers is touched for the sake of alphanumeric input is a specific innovation. And it certainly extends beyond laser projected keyboards.

      It is at least a kinda clever idea, unlike many patents we hear about on /.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

        Fair enough. I would at least hope, though, that the finger tap combinations that correspond to an alphabet in this invention are not themselves patentable. It's one thing to patent the input mechanism, but an entirely different thing to patent the input itself. Imagine a world where millions learned to 'type' this way, and somebody came up with another mechanism for processing finger taps that didn't infringe Samsung's mechanism. There'd be a huge barrier to adoption if everybody had to learn a new alp

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It is not a case of prior art for the same reason as it is not a banana. It is not a laser projection keyboard. You did not read the article.

    • Re:Prior Art? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ljw1004 ( 764174 ) on Thursday March 06, 2014 @07:47PM (#46424739)

      I can. Here's the first step. (1) ignore the slashdot summary. (2) read the "CLAIMS" section of the patent. (3) then post about it.

      In this case, what's being claimed is not a laser, is not a projection, and is arguably not even a keyboard.

    • Different prior art: finger counting (Score:4, Informative)

      by DrYak ( 748999 ) on Thursday March 06, 2014 @08:02PM (#46424819) Homepage

      Two things mentioned by others:
      - The device is NOT projecting a virtual keyboard with a laser that you can tap with your fingers.
      Instead, it lets you use *YOUR* finger as a keyboard and you tap them with your thumbs.
      - "Projection" is a poor choice of a word. What the device do, is that it superposes a visual aid on the glasses' HUD to help with the tapping. But you're basically tapping your thumb against your fingers (the glass just puts some labels as augmented reality to help you).

      So you see that this patent has absolutely nothing to do with virtual keyboard.

      Instead, it's got a much more older prior art:
      This way of data input is *VERY* closely related to ancient for of finger-counting in base 12 (probably has been used historically in most culture which count in "dozens") where you count phallanges with your thumb.

      According to Wikipedia: apperently this method is still used around in Asia, so no surprise that a korean company is trying to turn it into a data input method.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Gryle ( 933382 )
        Ah, okay, that makes more sense. I read the article but not the patent filing. Thanks for making me less ignorant.
    • Click the link and look at the picture if you're too lazy to even read any of it... The projected keyboards project onto the desk and you type as the keyboard were built into the desk. With this, the keyboard is superimposed on your fingers and you tap different parts of your finger with your thumb to signify different letters, not unlike the old T9 texting on flip phones. The drawing in the article shows which part of your finger had which letters.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Nexus7 ( 2919 )

        In other words, you can use your phone "hands-free" which driving, but not really hands-free.

  • Before cell phones people walking around and talking to themselves stood out as probably unstable. But now, not so much.

    Will we soon see people walking around, talking to themselves, and fidgeting in the air and think nothing of it?

  • While they are at it, can they fix the slow-by-design QWERTY keyboard layout and come up with something to make finger key input as fast,efficient and easy to use as possible?

    This is the 21st century, we shouldn't be slowed down by the limitations of the mechanical typewriter.

    • Well, it's Android, so try MessagEase [google.com] or a Dvorak keyboard [google.com], or any of a hundred others.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Belial6 ( 794905 )
      I've come to the conclusion that we are past the point of that being necessary. I don't consider myself a great typist. Decent, but not great. When I am in practice, I can accurately type 65 wpm. In the real world, I doubt I average 45 words a minute, as there are other factors than the physical act of typing that slow me down below the 65 wpm mark.
  • Multiple microphones can be used to triangulate the different sources of incoming noise. Some intelligent filters that take into account the expected 3D position of the speaker can then be used to filter out ambient noise. Cell phones are already doing this - at least the good ones are. This is why the iPhone has multiple microphones. I imagine Samsung is doing something similar. You can learn more and see some impressive examples in the Stanford on-line artificial intelligence lectures. I believe the
  • How does nobody seem to understand that any good input interface requires tactile feedback? We are truly in the age of form over function. God help us.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      How much more tactile do you need than physically touching your own hand?

    • Not everyone feels that way. I type better on Swiftkey than on a real keyboard (admittedly, I type real crappy on a normal keyboard). This is because swiftkey (and probably many other soft keyboards) correct a lot of my typing. It isn't perfect (it has the nasty habit of placing spaces in bb code and HTML, for example) but it is better than a normal keyboard.

      Besides that, most people feel a real keyboard just takes up to much space. A phone is not meant to program the next OS or write a book. It is a w
  • This technology could be useful when you need privacy, like when you just have to talk shit on someone who is in the same room as you, but you can't dictate the message out loud. But for the most part, this seems like a highly inefficient form of input and is probably just a spaghetti-against-the-wall submarine patent in the event that someone else implements the feature and it takes off.
  • I think Fin [indiegogo.com] has more potential.

  • I think this is one of those technologies, like ebooks, or smartphones, that all geeks imagined in their heads growing up (at least, those who grew up before ebooks and virtual reality goggles with keyboards, etc.) - so I'm glad it's finally here! None of the ingredients are revolutionary, it just needs to happen.

  • Seen it on one of the forums discussing this technology.......

  • I forsee some issues (Score:4, Funny)

    by RivenAleem ( 1590553 ) on Friday March 07, 2014 @06:52AM (#46426895)

    "No Officer, I was trying to do ctrl-alt-delete."

  • Now we know how the wizards were controlling their magic warriors in Big Trouble in Little China!

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