I'm fascinated with UIs and one that I have been paying close attention to for quite some time is skin-touch-technology. When you think maybe 5 to 10 years out about what kind of devices I could be carrying in my pockets while I walk down Grafton Street after a week's busy work on my way home it quite easily could be something like a small wireless transmitter, maybe in jewelry format, and a small camera and pointer device, like a small plaster on your index finger.
In Microsoft we've been looking at this space very carefully and doing a lot of innovation of our own. We've recently developed a technology to turn your skin into a touch screen and make this once theoretical idea a reality. Users wear the "Skinput" device strapped around the top of the arm which projects a screen onto the hand or forearm.
The technology transforms skin into an input interface by using acoustic signals that travel through the body to track touch and movement. PHD student Chris Harrison developed the technology and believes it could replace touch screen phones in the future. Here's what he had to say in a recent article I read.
"Your palms could do everything an iPhone could do. If you consider your palm and fingers provide about as much surface area as an iPhone screen, you might begin to wonder if we shouldn't just use that as the touch screen surface."
So let's say your doing a recruitment podcast you could just tap your fingers to start recording, change the volume, or pause the set up. Likewise, if you are typing a discussion topic for Irish Recruiters, maybe you just type the words on your arm and push your thumb and index finger together to post it. Although the prototype is still in its testing stage, this technology will probably make it to market some day in the not to distant future.
More to come soon. We are entering the SENSE ECONOMY!
I'll be talking more about what I think the sense econoomy is and why I think it is important to watch in up and coming Irish Recruiters newsletters.
