Ever wished that instead of carrying around your computer you could just strap on an armband and have it all there under your skin? Ok, so maybe you haven’t thought about it that specifically, but that’s the concept which Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University have come up with.
The touch screen of the future could be on your forearm people.
It works by picking up the vibrations produced when you taps various points on the surface of your skin. To measure these, a band is strapped around your bicep, and a small projector beams the menu options onto your arm. So if you’re giving a presentation, you could control your slide show using it. Or if you’re out jogging with your MP3 keeping the beat and a ballad comes on then you can simply click ‘next’ without having to faf around with the device. Cool eh? It could even work without the interface if you memorise where you need to tap to do different functions – useful for letting actors control effect on stage, or just plain freaking out your friends.
It’s just a prototype at the moment, and a pretty ugly one at that (I assume that a finished gadget could be imbedded into a watch strap or similar) but if realised it could really get under your skin (boom boom). Read more on MSNBC or you can watch the video on YouTube. Or just enjoy the pretty pictures.
