Skinput Uses Arm As Input Device
A student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former intern at Microsoft Research, Chris Harrison has developed a new input “device” that uses a persons palm and forearm as the “keyboard”. The new technology is being called Skinput. Harrison explains:
“People don’t love the iPhone keyboard. They use them. But they don’t love them. If you could make the iPhone keyboard as big as an arm — that would be huge. You could pretty much do a lot of what you do on your iPhone, its [like having] your iPhone on your palm.”
The device has been in development for 8 months but is not quite ready for deployment. Working alongside a Mircrosoft researcher, Dan Morris, Harrison believes the product will be available to the public in 2-7 years. Although it is currently workable the accuracy is not on point enough for it to be viable.
Users wear an armband that has 10 senors integrated into it. Essentially they pick up small vibrations and sound waves created by tapping on the palm and forearm. These vibrations are then sent to a receiver which deciphers the location of the touch and translates that into a direction for the computer. Eventually a user will be fully able to control things onscreen in this manner. Harrison further explains:
“They sort of start resonating — like guitar strings. The ‘diving-board’ receivers read the sound waves to figure out what gesture the person made, and then relay that information to a phone.”
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