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As wearable devices grow and screens shrink, a team of Indian-origin researchers has developed a new sonar technology that allows you to interact with smartwatches by writing or gesturing on any nearby surface — a tabletop, a sheet of paper or even in mid-air.
Called FingerIO, it tracks fine-grained finger movements by turning a smartphone or smartwatch into an active sonar system using the device’s own microphones and speakers.
Because sound waves travel through fabric and do not require a line of sight, users can even interact with a phone inside a front pocket or a smartwatch hidden under a sweater sleeve.
“You can’t type very easily onto a smartwatch display, so we wanted to transform a desk or any area around a device into an input surface,” said lead author Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, doctoral student in computer science and engineering from University of Washington.
“I don’t need to instrument my fingers with any other sensors. I just use my finger to write something on a desk or any other surface and the device can track it with high resolution,” Nandakumar added.
FingerIO can accurately track two-dimensional finger movements to within eight-mm, which is sufficiently accurate to interact with mobile devices.
Using FingerIO, one could use the flick of a finger to turn up the volume, press a button or scroll through menus on a smartphone without touching it, or even write a search command or text in the air rather than typing on a tiny screen.
“Using sound waves to track finger motion offers several advantages over cameras and other technologies like radar that require both custom sensor hardware and greater computing power,” explained Shyam Gollakota, senior author and assistant professor of computer science and engineering.
FingerIO turns a smartwatch or smartphone into a sonar system using the device’s own speaker to emit an inaudible sound wave.
[“Source-ibnlive”]