This is new technology that I could learn to love. Fingertip Digitizer.
This is part of an article from the University of Buffalo Newletter
With the tap of a single finger, computer users soon may be drawn deeper into the virtual world using a new device developed in the University at Buffalo's Virtual Reality Lab.
UB researchers say their "Fingertip Digitizer," which users wear on the tip of the index finger, can transfer to the virtual world the meaning and intent of common hand gestures, such as pointing, wagging the finger, tapping in the air or other movements that can be used to direct the actions of an electronic device, much like a mouse directs the actions of a personal computer, but with greater precision.
What's more, the Fingertip Digitizer can transfer to personal computers very precise information about the physical characteristics of an object -- and even can sense the shape and size of a human gland or tumor -- when a user taps, scratches, squeezes, strokes or glides a finger over the surface of the object.
According to Kesavadas, the Fingertip Digitizer will help bridge the gap between what a person knows and what a computer knows.
"With this device a computer, cell phone or computer game could read human intention more naturally," he explains. "Eventually the Fingertip Digitizer may be used as a high-end substitute for a mouse, a keyboard or a joystick."
