Microsoft's Skinput turns hands, arms into buttons

I like this idea, everyone knows how annoying it is to type on smart phones. You always end up hitting the wrong key or if you have a touch screen after using it for a while it loses some of its sensitivity (on my iphone anyway).
I'm not sure I completely understand how this will work but from what I can tell when you want to use it all you need is a wrist or elbow band, so no need for any kind of weird micro-chipping in the users skin. What do y'all think of this and would you use it?



Snippet from source:

"Understanding how Skinput works makes it seem all the more futuristic.

The system turns a person's arm and hand into a wiggling, pulsating instrument, full of vibrations that can be picked up and translated.

Skinput users wear an armband -- the prototype version is made of an elbow brace -- that's lined with 10 sensors. These sensors look like tiny diving boards with dumbbells on one end, and they pick up inaudible sounds that range in frequency from 25 to 78 hertz.

When a Skinput user taps a thumb and middle finger together, the impact sends ripples down the skin and through the bones in the person's arm. "They sort of start resonating -- like guitar strings," Harrison said. The diving-board receivers read the sound waves to figure out what gesture the person made, and then relay that information to a phone."

www.cnn.com...

I will stick to my buttons thank you very much. I think they are just over thinking a small problem. The best solution would to just make a slightly bigger phone that would allow room for all the buttons.

Oh but what would be the fun in that, that just makes too much sense
Thank you for the reply

Reading in the source:

But the most profound achievement of Skinput is proving that the human body can be used as a sensor, he said.

Yeah right! So much hype it makes me puke... There have been many examples of human interfaces based on detecting body motion.

Check this out:
www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

[edit on 19-4-2010 by buddhasystem]

Originally posted by Wondering302
Oh but what would be the fun in that, that just makes too much sense

Thank you for the reply

I'm just waiting for the time when phones will just be implanted in everyone's brain. That way girls will never be able to say they didn't pick up cause they didn't have their phone with them

Never mind my comment, but its still pretty cool.K

[edit on 19-4-2010 by colloredbrothers]

Now that's cool!
Sry for the one-liner, but that's the way it is, a nice new toy

I keep going back and forth in my head as to whether or not I like this new "gadget" for lack of a better word.

Originally posted by Wondering302
Oh but what would be the fun in that, that just makes too much sense

Exactly, knowing microsoft though they probably stole the idea of some poor dude sitting in his basement lol.

I doubt ms comes up with anything themselves, apart from getting chinese peopel to work for 2cents a hour or something.

reply to post by Wondering302


I wonder if a heavy masturbation session will put me through to the Vatican?

On a serious note, this could be a boon as a way for people to control artificial limbs, could place this sensor on a tongue and or lips.