Finger-Tracking Tech Turns Your Arm Into A Touchpad (gizmag.com) 28
New submitter Keys of Cars quotes a report from Gizmag: Smartwatches may be handy, but their tiny touchscreens can easily be obscured by your fingers as you're using them on the device. As a result, we've seen various attempts to move the control surface. One of the latest, Carnegie Mellon University's SkinTrack system, moves it onto your hand and lower arm. The strap of the smartwatch features multiple electrodes, which detects a ring that is worn on your "control finger" (on your non smartwatch-wearing arm) that emits a high-frequency electrical signal. When your finger, specifically the ring, approaches and/or touches the arm with the watch, the high-frequency electrical signal is propagated through the skin. It will work even if your skin is covered with clothing! The system is reportedly 99% accurate, and can locate touches with a mean error of 7.6mm. SkinTrack was used to control games, scroll through lists, zoom in and out of maps, draw pictures, and operate an onscreen number pad.
Hmm (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm a flid, you insensitive clod!!!!
So... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:4, Funny)
Why? Looking into making micro-transactions?
Re: (Score:3)
...just my arm? ;D
Adds a new meaning to the term "joystick"
accuracy (Score:5, Insightful)
The system is reportedly 99% accurate, and can locate touches with a mean error of 7.6mm
That seems pretty horrible, to be honest.
Your big toe probably has better accuracy than that.
Re: (Score:3)
Depends on the size of the surface. Have you watched the video?
Much more problematic are the amount of input lag and the lack of a cursor (besides when hovering, which I imagine to be very tiresome).
Concerning the latter: Making your arm a giant touchpad is awesome, but we generally don't use normal touchpads without cursors (for good reasons) and it seems silly to disregard that.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends on the size of the surface. Have you watched the video?
Much more problematic are the amount of input lag and the lack of a cursor (besides when hovering, which I imagine to be very tiresome). Concerning the latter: Making your arm a giant touchpad is awesome, but we generally don't use normal touchpads without cursors (for good reasons) and it seems silly to disregard that.
Cursors?
None of my touchpads have cursors, only my touchscreens, and I usually can't see them on touchscreens cause my fingers aren't transparent for some reason.
However I have to agree, the lag apparent in the video is atrocious. It's a lot worse than I expected.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. Cursors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Watch the video again. Almost all sample applications worked by swiping, etc. The only time they show a cursor when not hovering is in the beginning, when explaining the technology.
I'm not saying a cursor is required for all modes of interaction, but unless the gestures are broad and simple, including a cursor is a good idea. Not requiring the user to hover whilst positioning is also a good idea.
Also, I think you forgot to say: "Hey man, thanks for the link explaining what cursors are. My understanding of t
Re: (Score:2)
Watch the video again. Almost all sample applications worked by swiping, etc. The only time they show a cursor when not hovering is in the beginning, when explaining the technology.
I'm not saying a cursor is required for all modes of interaction, but unless the gestures are broad and simple, including a cursor is a good idea. Not requiring the user to hover whilst positioning is also a good idea.
Also, I think you forgot to say: "Hey man, thanks for the link explaining what cursors are. My understanding of the word was clearly lacking and in hindsight my slight snarkiness in response to your comment was unwarranted, for which I apologize. I'll try to do a basic web search before I comment, the next time."
Actually, as you just confirmed, they do have cursor support demonstrated in the video, which is why I wrote my smartarse reply to begin with.
So, hey man, thanks for confirming my assertion that it does have cursor support, that correlates with most interface-development standards such as wiki, W3C, etc, specify.
(Not sure why I'm being a little bit nasty on this thread, nothing to do with you I swear, just workplace frustrations working themselves out I assume)
Wrong link. (Score:2)
The first link in the summary links to a different technique, called "Finger I/O", which uses sonar and is from the University of Washington. The link next to the headline ( http://www.gizmag.com/skintrac... [gizmag.com] ) properly goes to the thing that the article is about; which is electric & from CMU.
No Ring (Score:2)
I figure the future will use hand gestures recognized by 3D triangulation + image recognition. You'll hold your hand over your screen and manipulate objects as if conducting an orchestra.
Or Google-Glass-like viewing instead of a hand-held screen.
A guy who was jailed in the 70's and released recently was taken back by people "talking to themselves" while walking down the street. Soon they'll also be conducting invisible orchestras.
Unless direct brain inserts mature faster.
Re: (Score:2)
Taken aback. Unless you mean that they had time travel or re-imprisoned him.
Too much stuff (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't it depend on whether they're digital or analog?
Did they find a use for smartwatches too? (Score:2)
Unless you love being spammed by notifications, I don't see any use for them.
They'd better work on making smartwatches useful for something first, and then fix the control scheme.
When will I be able to buy a cheap touch overlay? (Score:2)
I give a shit about being able to detect touch on my arm, I can do that already, it's called nerves. What I want is to be able to detect touches on my 25.5" displays. I have two of them and I'd really love to convert them both to touch. If I could even find an overlay that size, it would cost minimum $200, and that's for just two point touch. Why are touch overlays so expensive, even IR ones? When will they get cheaper?
Re: (Score:2)
We've already been living in that era for at least a decade - I've definitely had *multiple* instances where I couldn't tell if the crazy guy on the subway was mumbling to himself, or mumbling into a bluetooth headset. I suppose this does make it even less obvious though.
Testudo (Score:3)
Strap a Wacom tablet to your arm. As a bonus, you can use it as a shield.