3DTouch thimble that could make computer mouse obsolete 3DTouch wearable device could change the way you interact with computers. Researchers have created an intelligent thimble that sits at the end of your finger and allow the user to interact with objects in a virtual three-dimensional world. Anh Nguyen and Amy Banic from the University of Wyoming in Laramie have created the 3DTouch thimble that can sense its position accurately in three-dimensions and respond to a set of preprogrammed gestures that allow the user to interact with objects in a virtual three-dimensional world. MIT Technology Review says that Nguyen and Banic have created a cheap device that works as a universal input for any computing device. The 3DTouch sits on the end of a finger and is equipped with inbuilt 3D accelerometer, a 3D magnetometer and 3D gyroscope and allows the data from each sensor to be compared. It also has an optical flow sensor that measures the movement of the device against a two-dimensional surface, similar to that inside of a mouse. The device is connected by a wire to an Arduino controller which combines the data from all the sensors and is then streamed to a conventional laptop. This wired connection later could be replaced by a wireless solution using a pair of XBee modules, researchers said. Nguyen and Banic have also added a number of mouse-like gestures that allow a user to interact with 3-D objects, through selecting and dragging them. They have added gestures like a finger tap, a double tap and a press gesture. Researchers say that the device will be relatively cheap but have not mentioned a price. The researchers say that it will work with existing devices such as a desktop PC or a Cave Autonomous Virtual Environment. In the future, 3DTouch could also help in interacting with virtual reality devices like Oculus Rift and Google cardboard.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 11:26:09 +0000
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