NTT DoCoMo researcher Masaaki Fukumoto has developed a
system that allows users to issue simple commands via remote
control by tapping their fingers together.
The system is based on a wrist-worn sensor that picks up small
shocks traveling along the bones in the hand to the wrist when
users tap their fingers, said Fukumoto, an executive research
engineer at NTT DoCoMo's biological signal processing laboratories
and inventor of the system.
The researcher has been demonstrating the prototype at the
Wireless Japan 2004 exhibition.
The wrist unit picks up the shocks via an embedded chip, called
a UbiChip, and can differentiate between around 20 or 30 commands
tapped out in a series of fast and slow taps, something like Morse
code.
In the demonstration, the unit translates these commands into
various remote control pulses to accomplish tasks such as switching
on or off lights.
Fukumoto is the same researcher who developed NTT DoCoMo's
so-called "bone-phone". This prototype, unveiled five years ago,
works by sending the audio of a telephone call as a series of
vibrations from a wrist-worn unit down to the user's finger.
To hear the audio, users have to put a finger in their ears for
the vibrations to complete their journey. They could also answer
the phone by tapping their fingers together.
Development of the technology is continuing, said Fukumoto. He
added that his research is not aimed at coming up with new products
but rather at developing new interface technologies that might one
day be useful for mobile communications products or
technologies.
Martyn Williams writes for IDG News Service