SkinTrack- touch tracking on the skin

SkinTrack is a system that allows to navigate your smartwatch by touching your skin.

The SkinTrack developed at Carnegie Mellon University, by using the body as an electrical waveguide, enables continuous touch tracking on the skin.

It consists of a ring, which emits a continuous high frequency AC signal, and a sensing wristband with multiple electrodes. Due to the phase delay inherent in a high-frequency AC signal propagating through the body, a phase difference can be observed between pairs of electrodes.

It measures these phase differences to compute a 2D finger touch coordinate.

“Our approach can segment touch events at 99% accuracy, and resolve the 2D location of touches with a mean error of 7.6mm. As our approach is compact, non-invasive, low-cost and low-powered, we envision the technology being integrated into future smartwatches, supporting rich touch interactions beyond the confines of the small touchscreen.”

via The Verge