Samantha Atkins wrote: <snip> > COOL. I don't know how hard this is to do since I'm not much of a > hardware hacker. But I came up with a notion of replacing keyboards and > mice by using a pair of ultrasound emitters and sampling the echo > reflections with 2 or more tiny mikes. A strip of such could be mounted > on a conventional monitor or any surface or the two or more sets of > components could be embedded in clothing. Synthetic aperture algorithms > could be used to process the signals and give highly detailed mappings > of objects and movement within a few feet of the sensors. > > I see that there would be a potential problem with mis-typing and > mis-clicking. But that is a training exercise also. It would be fun to > write software to allow training a thus equipped system to understand > your own idiosyncratic position/movement/expression patterns. > > Finally. I can do real work by mere hand waving! > > Can such a thing be built and reasonably cheaply? I would think it > could be a real boon in some applications, especially games. > > - samantha There was at one time a "widget" that used a spark source as a sound sources, then could generate a 3d position to pretty fair accuracy from a spark gap on the fingertip. They had strip mikes along the x, y, and z planes IIRC. Nowadays I'd probably try a piezo, preload it one way then snap it the other, as an impulse sound source, if that'd work as well. IIRC I saw this in a patent search or it might have been a magazine. The spark source was wired to the base unit, said base unit set all the timings and did the calculations. Think if you look for trackballs and pointing devices this might come up. It's not a recent device <G> Mark -- Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" toWear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org
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