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Samsung Galaxy Glass Patent Plans To Turn Fingers Into a Keyboard
rjmarvin writes "Samsung looks to have found a way around voice commands for smart glasses by projecting an augmented reality keyboard onto users' hands. Galaxy Glass wearers' thumbs are used as input devices, tapping different areas of their fingers where various keys are virtually mapped. According to the August 2013 patent filing with the WIPO and South Korea's Intellectual Property Office, Samsung states that voice controls are too imprecise a technology, which are too heavily impacted by the noise levels of the surrounding environment."
I find typing on a flat surface doesn't work, as my fingers are curiously all of different lengths.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I wonder how long before we accept that we will have to wear batteries to power the MRI that reads out brainwaves and turns them into text. It will happen.
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Mommy what is that man doing with his hands?
I've seen laser projection keyboards for many years. Can someone with some technical know-how tell me why this isn't prior art?
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
Before cell phones people walking around and talking to themselves stood out as probably unstable. But now, not so much.
Will we soon see people walking around, talking to themselves, and fidgeting in the air and think nothing of it?
That's clumsy oaf, to you, nurb.
Samsung's Gorilla Glass is about 1/3 the thickness of the glass from an iPhone 4s (I have samples on my desk in front of me) While it's nice to have light weight and slim form factors, there's a lot to be said for glass which doesn't break easily. The aftermarket for fake Galaxy glass is considerable - which must mean I'm not the only clumsy oaf out there. My phone is now ensconced in an Otterbox Defender as having it all it one piece is preferable to a handful of broken bits.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
While they are at it, can they fix the slow-by-design QWERTY keyboard layout and come up with something to make finger key input as fast,efficient and easy to use as possible?
This is the 21st century, we shouldn't be slowed down by the limitations of the mechanical typewriter.
Multiple microphones can be used to triangulate the different sources of incoming noise. Some intelligent filters that take into account the expected 3D position of the speaker can then be used to filter out ambient noise. Cell phones are already doing this - at least the good ones are. This is why the iPhone has multiple microphones. I imagine Samsung is doing something similar. You can learn more and see some impressive examples in the Stanford on-line artificial intelligence lectures. I believe they were posted in iTunes University a couple of years ago. I now use a Linux desktop so I can not verify that they are still available.
How does nobody seem to understand that any good input interface requires tactile feedback? We are truly in the age of form over function. God help us.
I find typing on a flat surface doesn't work, as my fingers are curiously all of different lengths.
Of course your fingers are longer in the middle. How else are you supposed to reach the 3 & 8 keys?
Suborbital [spaceflight] is the special olympics of spaceflight. - Rei
I've dropped my G1 & G2 onto concrete, and the most they received is scratches (and the battery compartment popping open & tossing the battery). I've dropped my Galaxy S3 on the bathroom tile, and it only has a small scratch on the peripheral of the front glass. All of these have occurred from chest height (and I'm 6' tall). What are you doing to your phone that you are constantly breaking the glass? The S3 is the first I've ever but a protector on, and mostly because I put an extended battery in that doesn't fit inside the standard case.
Two things mentioned by others:
- The device is NOT projecting a virtual keyboard with a laser that you can tap with your fingers.
Instead, it lets you use *YOUR* finger as a keyboard and you tap them with your thumbs.
- "Projection" is a poor choice of a word. What the device do, is that it superposes a visual aid on the glasses' HUD to help with the tapping. But you're basically tapping your thumb against your fingers (the glass just puts some labels as augmented reality to help you).
So you see that this patent has absolutely nothing to do with virtual keyboard.
Instead, it's got a much more older prior art:
This way of data input is *VERY* closely related to ancient for of finger-counting in base 12 (probably has been used historically in most culture which count in "dozens") where you count phallanges with your thumb.
According to Wikipedia: apperently this method is still used around in Asia, so no surprise that a korean company is trying to turn it into a data input method.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
This technology could be useful when you need privacy, like when you just have to talk shit on someone who is in the same room as you, but you can't dictate the message out loud. But for the most part, this seems like a highly inefficient form of input and is probably just a spaghetti-against-the-wall submarine patent in the event that someone else implements the feature and it takes off.
I think Fin has more potential.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
I think this is one of those technologies, like ebooks, or smartphones, that all geeks imagined in their heads growing up (at least, those who grew up before ebooks and virtual reality goggles with keyboards, etc.) - so I'm glad it's finally here! None of the ingredients are revolutionary, it just needs to happen.
Assuming you're the #13 AC there, what you wrote doesn't even come close to what's been described.
"They should come up with a hand held controller that lets you control it. The exact interface needs to be worked out but perhaps you can control it with your phone connected to it via bluetooth. You have a pointer/arrow that you see on the glass and you can hold the phone in your pocket and control it with your thumb."
There's no controller. Your hand just becomes a keypad to enter data.
You've got a 3 x 4 grid to work with. The old keypad on phones naturally fits that. What layout of keys would you propose?
If they can do this, though, why don't they just overlay a QWERTY keyboard in the air and just do one or two finger hunt-and-peck recognition? Or maybe even a Swype style in the air. Add in some error correction / auto-correct and I think it'd be a whole lot better than a keypad on my fingers.
You're right! You're not the only clumsy oaf out there.
Sorry but that's the simple truth. If you can't look after your phone then put it in a case like you already have or buy a durable one. The thin form the of the Galaxy S series is in my opinion one of its best features and given how I've yet to break a phone (all of mine have scratches, dings, and bits of paint missing but otherwise still work) I have not problem with Samsung removing some of that wasteful 2/3rds of useless glass.
Oh and the aftermarket for iPhone glass is also considerable so my guess is if you bang it that hard you'll break it one way or the other.
Seen it on one of the forums discussing this technology.......
"No Officer, I was trying to do ctrl-alt-delete."
Now we know how the wizards were controlling their magic warriors in Big Trouble in Little China!
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
try typing on your fingers using your thumb... that's gonna make carpal tunnel syndrome look like a day at the beach!
It reminds me of the attempt to replace mice with gestures: cute thirty seconds, painful in under an hour.