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Magic Finger Turns Any Surface Into a Touch Interface
cylonlover writes "A trip on public transport or to the local coffee shop might give the impression that touchscreens are everywhere, but scientists at Autodesk Research of the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto are looking to take the ubiquity of touch interfaces to the next level. They are developing a 'Magic Finger' that allows any surface to detect touch input by shifting the touch technology from the surface to the wearer's finger. It's a proof-of-concept prototype made up of a little Velcro ring that straps to the wearer's fingertip with a trail of wires leading to a box of electronics. On the ring there are a pair of optical sensors. One is a low resolution, high-speed sensor for tracking movement, the other a high-resolution camera, which is able to detect 32 different surface textures with 98 percent accuracy."
...to "Magic Finger"...
Doesn't help that we were discussing the naughty ads that British beer brewer "Bishop's Finger" uses...
"I derive untold pleasure from a Bishop's^H^H^H^H^H^H^HMagic Finger."
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I seem to remember manufacturers of optical mice making such bold claims as being able to track on glass. This is just an optical mouse without the plastic case.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
This makes as little sense in the modern age as those "virtual reality" helmets we're all supposed to be using by now.
Companies like Leap are making much more advanced technology that requires nothing attached to your hand and uses motion sensors to track your hand movements with incredible precision. Comparatively, this guy's mouse-finger contraption looks as silly as Doc's brain-wave reader in BttF.
(I don't represent Leap, I just remember hearing about their tech awhile back.)
An annoying smartphone ringing can be muted by touching the bag that it’s in. The wearer can start an app or send a saved text message by touching a logo on their shirt.
I'd be afraid to scratch myself or use a urinal without safe search on.
Normal people don't strap these sensors to their fingers (where there is no room for batteries), they put them in a pen. Normal people also don't use bar codes that weren't designed for the purpose, they use patterns that work much better for determining position. So, normal people just buy a Logitech IO2 or the Livescribe pen.
http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/smartpen/echo/
bought a finger mouse on ebay few years ago, although it was not as sophisticated this this one, it was very similar.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
it turns any surface into a cursor control interface without needing a touchscreen... Microsoft Mouse