Researcher Creates Skin Based Touch Technology

A Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University has created an input system for electronic devices that uses your skin as a touch screen.

Chris Harrison is a third year Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and has created a system that allows people to use their skin to operate their electronic devices. The system, dubbed ‘Skinput’, straps onto the wearer’s arm and projects buttons on to their skin; the system then ‘listens’ for the vibrations that happen when the wearer presses one of the buttons.

“Appropriating the human body as an input device is appealing not only because we have roughly two square meters of external surface area, but also because much of it is easily accessible by our hands,” said Harrison.

“For example, we can readily flick each of our fingers, touch the tip of our nose, and clap our hands together without visual assistance. Few external input devices can claim this accurate, eyes-free input characteristic and provide such a large interaction area.”

Source: Chris Harrison