Communications of the ACM
New Gadgets to Solve Fat Finger Fumbles
Tiny cellphone and camera screens that are difficult to operate may soon be a thing of the past as scientists develop interface technologies that change or eliminate touchscreens.
Credit: Gadgetblind.com
Scientists such as Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) professor Patrick Baudisch are developing new gadgets that may eliminate small keyboards and other problems that make accessing services from handhelds difficult.
Baudisch believes enabling phones to perform essential computer functions is the way forward. He notes that keyboard-screen combinations have increased rather than decreased the size of mobile devices, and HPI's research agenda is to circumvent the inherent smallness of handheld displays.
HPI's Nanotouch project is focused on devices with touchscreens that are operated from the back, while Baudisch's Imaginary Interfaces project does away with the touchscreen. Users wear a camera-equipped device that is directed by hand gestures. The users' camera-monitored hands are bathed in infrared light, and a sensor measures the time it takes for the rays to leave the light source, bounce off the hands, and return to the camera.
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