Skinput News Reveals Mobile Touch Screen Forearm Interface

By: Bill Waters
Staff Writer
Published: Mar 6, 2010

Latest news reveals Skinput mobile touch screen menus for your arm and fingers.

Skinput researchers have developed a partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft. They have produced a new method of physical interaction targeted at mobile devices that uses skin as an interface. It basically replaces the monitor hardware by using the skin to control input and output.

The new method "works very well for a series of gestures, even when the body is in motion," the researchers said in a statement. The new input interface will allow people to scroll menus by moving their index finger across their arm.

The system captures the input by using a band around the upper arm. The movement can control mobile devices. One possible application is a method for controlling an iPod with skin touch-based input to select music tracks while jogging.

Researchers seemed to have focused on improving accuracy and discarding erroneous or extraneous touch input that would otherwise cause problems. This may be similar, in principle, to the type of "palm detection" featured on Apple multi-touch track-pads.

The technology has a lot of promises. For instance, the researchers mounted a pico projector on the touch-sensing armband to project a graphical interface on the user's arm. The display shows user-friendly buttons on the skin that turn green when selected.

Mobile Touch Screen Interface Detects Characteristic Acoustic Patterns

The technology can detect the ultra low-frequency sound produced by tapping the skin with the finger. It also uses the microchip-sized "pico" projectors now found in some cell phones. The system beams a keyboard or menu onto the user's forearm and hand from a projector housed in an armband.

The armband then calculates which part of the display you want to activate. Carnegie Mellon University and working with the Microsoft research lab are working on ways to use distinctive sounds when they tap on parts of the arm and fingers. For example, skin can produce one kind of sound, while the musculature and skeleton areas produce a different sound.

Researchers have identified various locations on the forearm and hand that produce characteristic acoustic patterns when tapped. The detector in the armband contains five piezoelectric cantilevers, each weighted to respond to certain bands of sound frequencies. Different combinations of the sensors are activated to differing degrees depending on where the arm is tapped.

The method could also use wireless technology like Bluetooth to transmit commands to many types of mobile devices. These devices include cell phones, iPods and PCs. It is an idea that will eventually be brought into the marketplace as a new menu driven interface.