As mobile and wearable devices such as smartwatches grow smaller, it gets tougher for people to interact with screens the size of a matchbook.
That could change with a new sonar technology developed by University of Washington computer scientists and electrical engineers that allows you to interact with mobile devices by writing or gesturing on any nearby surface — a tabletop, a sheet of paper or even in mid-air.
FingerIO tracks fine-grained finger movements by turning a smartphone or smartwatch into an active sonar system using the device’s own microphones and speakers.
Because sound waves travel through fabric and do not require a line of sight, users can even interact with a phone inside a front pocket or a smartwatch hidden under a sweater sleeve.
In a paper to be presented in May at the Association for Computing Machinery’s CHI 2016 conference in San Jose, California, the UW team demonstrates that FingerIO can accurately track two-dimensional finger movements to within 8mm, which is sufficiently accurate to interact with today’s mobile devices. The work was recognized with an honorable mention award by the conference.
“You can’t type very easily onto a smartwatch display, so we wanted to transform a desk or any area around a device into an input surface,” said lead author Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, a UW doctoral student in computer science and engineering. “I don’t need to instrument my fingers with any other sensors — I just use my finger to write something on a desk or any other surface and the device can track it with high resolution.”
Using FingerIO, one could use the flick of a finger to turn up the volume, press a button, or scroll through menus on a smartphone without touching it, or even write a search command or text in the air rather than typing on a tiny screen.
FingerIO turns a smartwatch or smartphone into a sonar system using the device’s own speaker to emit an inaudible sound wave. That signal bounces off the finger, and those “echoes” are recorded by the device’s microphones and used to calculate the finger’s location in space.
Using sound waves to track finger motion offers several advantages over cameras — which don’t work without line-of-sight when the device is hidden by fabric or another obstructions — and other technologies like radar that require both custom sensor hardware and greater computing power, said senior author and UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering Shyam Gollakota.
“Acoustic signals are great — because sound waves travel much slower than the radio waves used in radar, you don’t need as much processing bandwidth so everything is simpler,” said Gollakota, who directs the UW’s Networks and Mobile Systems Lab. “And from a cost perspective, almost every device has a speaker and microphones so you can achieve this without any special hardware.”
But sonar echoes are weak and typically not accurate enough to track finger motion at a high resolution. Errors of a few centimeters make it impossible to differentiate between writing individual letters or subtle hand gestures.
The UW researchers employed a type of signal typically used in wireless communication — called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing — and demonstrated that it can be used to achieve high-resolution finger tracking using sound. Their algorithms leverage the properties of OFDM signals to track phase changes in the echoes and correct for any errors in the finger location to achieve sub-centimeter finger tracking.
To test their approach, the researchers created a FingerIO prototype app for Android devices and downloaded it to an off-the-shelf Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone and a smartwatch customized with two microphones, which are needed to track finger motion in two dimensions. Today’s smartwatches typically only have one, which can be used to track a finger in one dimension.
The researchers asked testers to draw shapes such as stars, squiggles or figure 8s on a touchpad next to a smartphone or smartwatch running FingerIO. Then they compared the touchpad tracings to the shapes created by FingerIO’s tracking.
The average difference between the drawings and the FingerIO tracings was 0.8 centimeters for the smartphone and 1.2 centimeters for the smartwatch.
“Given that your finger is already a centimeter thick, that’s sufficient to accurately interact with the devices,” said co-author and electrical engineering graduate student Vikram Iyer.
Next steps for the research team include demonstrating how FingerIO can be used to track multiple fingers moving at the same time, and extending its tracking abilities into three dimensions by adding additional microphones to the devices.
Learn more: Smartwatches can now track your finger in mid-air using sonar
The Latest on: Sonar
[google_news title=”” keyword=”sonar” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Sonar
- Controlling back office costs helps offset compressed broker marginson May 3, 2024 at 11:50 am
The rapid introduction of new competitors and technology in freight is producing a rapid downward trend in brokerage gross margins. To remain competitive, cost visibility and controls are paramount.
- Australia's navy chief confronts Chinese counterpart over 'unsafe' sonar attack against HMAS Toowoombaon May 2, 2024 at 11:55 am
Vice Admiral Mark Hammond also directly raised concerns with Chief Admiral Hu Zhongming over last year's sonar attack on HMAS Toowoomba.(ABC News: David Sciasci) In short: Australia's navy chief ...
- New SONAR update allows users to easily price flatbed freight and visualize dataon May 2, 2024 at 9:08 am
SONAR, the leader in freight market intelligence, today announces the availability of flatbed pricing data directly within the user interface of its Market Dashboard+ application. The post New SONAR ...
- Apu in Pather Panchali to Mukul in Sonar Kella: Five wonder moments involving children in the world of Satyajit Rayon May 2, 2024 at 4:42 am
On Satyajit Ray’s birthday, we explore how (in the words of Soumitra Chatterjee) ‘he never lost the curiosity and wonder of a child’ ...
- Wooden steamship that sank in fierce 1909 gale found in Lake Superioron May 1, 2024 at 10:38 pm
WHITEFISH POINT, MI - A Great Lakes shipwreck group announced today that it has found the final resting place of a 735-ton wooden steamship that was loaded down with a cargo of salt and crossing Lake ...
- Lynne Doherty Joins Sonar as President of Field Operationson May 1, 2024 at 6:01 am
Sonar announced today that Lynne Doherty will join the organization as President of Field Operations. In her new role, Lynne will be responsible for driving revenue, and ensuring that Sonar's ...
- Thales delivers the first CAPTAS-4 sonar for the US Navyon April 29, 2024 at 6:29 am
The first CAPTAS-4 variable-depth sonar transmitter has been delivered to the U.S. Navy’s Constellation Frigate Program (FFG-62) by Thales' subsidiary Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC).
- The New Laws of PHYSYX According to St Croix Rods: From Forward Facing Sonar to Froggingon April 28, 2024 at 9:12 am
Check out the new laws of PHYSYX. What I’ve always noticed and admired about St Croix Rods is their willingness to push the boundaries in an effort to advance the fishing experience. They aren’t ...
- Trailblazing sonar device will be in thousands of Minnesota boats for fishing openeron April 25, 2024 at 5:17 am
The futuristic "forward-facing sonar" is here and much more common. One impact: Releasing some fish might become necessary as catch rates improve.
- Sonar boat searches Lake Michigan for Sade Robinson's remainson April 19, 2024 at 9:19 pm
Sonar technology hit the water of Lake Michigan to search for the remains of Sade Robinson on Friday. Bruce's Legacy assisted the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, using their boat equipped with ...
via Bing News