SkinTrack Turns Your Arm into a Trackpad
In the Media
The Future Interfaces Group (FIG), a lab directed by Human-Computer Interaction Institute Assistant Professor Chris Harrison, was recently the topic of discussion on Essential Pittsburgh to demo one of its newest devices: SkinTrack.
The device leverages communication between a ring and wristband fitted with electrodes and serves as a way to increase the size of a smartwatch, without actually having to change the smartwatch at all.
“Right now smart watches are really tiny screens, but your fingers are fat, so when you actually scroll on it you’re covering basically 30% of the screen,” says Gierad Laput, a Ph.D. student in the HCII.
SkinTrack is just one of many current projects at FIG that are meant to build upon existing interfaces. In the case of SkinTrack, that's the interface of a smartwatch. For other projects, like Teslatouch, the focus is not on the specific device, but on improving the dynamic surface of an interface.
To hear the complete segment with HCII students Yang Zhang and Gierad Laput, listen on 90.5 WESA.