Communications of the ACM
Google Seeing-Hand Patent Shows Smart Glove Ambitions
This diagram from Google's "seeing with your hand" patent filing shows a sensor (104) communicating with a processor (106) that transmits to a display (108).
Credit: GeekWire
Google has received a patent for a device and methods for obtaining information with one's hands. Some observers view the patent as a sign of Google's plans for smart gloves and interacting with the virtual world.
Although people naturally use their hand and fingers as a means of gathering information, the amount and types of information that can be conveyed typically is limited to specific contexts, the patent application says. As a result, Google inventors were inspired to consider devices and methods for gathering and conveying information. The patent notes that in order to perceive an inaccessible environment, a user may wear a device equipped with detectors on the hands or on other areas of the body.
The smart glove could include cameras to act as magnifiers; motion detectors, gyroscopes, and accelerometers to support navigation applications; and wireless communication to facilitate data transfer with other smart glove users and mobile commerce. Such services will be executed by a smart glove outfitted with electronics, such as cameras on the fingertips, motion detectors on the fingers, and a central processing unit, random-access memory, and storage and wireless communication chips on the back.
From PhysOrg.com
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