Courtesy of Fujitsu
Smartphones, virtual reality, computers; they’re all worthless without effective input. Fujitsu, a company based out of Japan, is looking at creating a brand new form of input that can be used virtually anywhere.
Meet the Fujitsu Ring (Not the actual name…hopefully), a ring that leverages motion capture and NFC technology to enable you to input your thoughts through in-air hand-writing. Simply put your hand up, press the operator button on the ring with your thumb, and begin writing out your message.
The company claims very high accuracy with the device. Numeric entry has been proven at 95% without any user training. However, exact numbers have not been disclosed on the accuracy of Alpha (Letter) inputs.
A longstanding challenge with in-air motion capture writing has been separating motions that indicate a letter stroke versus an in-between letter stroke. The company is touting a new proprietary software that enables it to identify stroked between letters. The company claims this software will drastically improve overall accuracy. Per Fujitsu’s announcement:
What Fujitsu Laboratories has done is to develop a technology that automatically recognizes the unwanted connections between the strokes of the letterform that result from the longhand trace, and correct the track data accordingly. This correction improves letterform legibility and text recognition rates.
The ring is currently undergoing testing and the company is targeting a late 2015 released. Get ready to see a bunch of flailing fingers if this catches on. But hey, if it can save a few lives by providing a safer input method for texting while driving, this device may have some serious potential. They are going to have to work on their design first if they want to dominate the fingers of the world. Let’s remain optimistic as their current design is a prototype.
What are your thoughts on the ring? Does air writing intrigue you? Or would you be more embarrassed to be seen flailing your finger around in public? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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