Now, control devices with thumb gestures

Ring fitted with microphone, gyroscope

December 01, 2017 09:26 pm | Updated 09:27 pm IST - Washington

Smart tool:  Fingersound ring.

Smart tool: Fingersound ring.

Scientists have created a computing finger ring that can be used to make phone calls, send voicemails or answer text messages — all without the wearer reaching for their phone or even looking at it.

The system called Fingersound is triggered by a thumb ring outfitted with a gyroscope and tiny microphone. It also allows people to trace letters on their fingers and see the figures appear on a nearby computer screen. As wearers strum their thumb across the fingers, the hardware detects movement, said researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology in the U.S.

While other gesture-based systems require the user to perform gestures in the air, Fingersound uses the fingers as a canvas.

This allows the system to clearly recognise the beginning and end of an intended gesture by using the microphone and gyroscope to detect the signal.

“Our system uses sound and movement to identify intended gestures, which improves the accuracy compared to a system just looking for movements,” said Cheng Zhang, from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

“For instance, to a gyroscope, random finger movements during walking may look very similar to the thumb gestures. But based on our investigation, the sounds caused by these daily activities are quite different from each other.”

Fingersound sends the sound captured by the contact microphone and motion data captured by the gyroscope sensor through multiple filtering mechanisms. The system then analyses it to determine whether a gesture was performed or whether it was simply part of daily activity.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.