ActiTouch Device Transforms Skin Into AR/VR Touch Input Platform
This platform uses a wristband RF transmitter, Leap Motion, and sensors integrated into an AR/VR headset for skin-based touch input.
Traditional AR/VR platforms use handheld controllers or in-air gestures for interaction within applications. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon’s Future Interfaces Group have designed a new interaction system that does away with those controllers, which utilizes the skin on our hands and arms as a capacitive input device. The ActiTouch wearable system lets users utilize the skin as touch input surfaces, without the need for any external equipment such as cameras or projectors.
The researchers explain, “We invented a powerful sensor fusion method which combines an electrical method with computer vision. This enables precise on-skin touch segmentations, which uniquely enables many fine-grained touch interactions such as scrolling and swiping.”
ActiTouch was developed using a wrist-worn RF transmitter outfitted with an NXP K20P64M72SF1 microcontroller with an AD5930 signal chip, and powered by a 3.7V Lithium-ion polymer battery. The RF transmitter is used in conjunction with an AR/VR headset equipped with sensors and an RF receiver, which is also powered by the same type of battery used with the wristband. Both devices feature silver-based conductive fabric electrodes, which allows the skin to act as a circuit- on when touching the skin, and off with no contact.
A Leap Motion camera affixed to the headset provides 3D tracking of the wearer’s fingers, while an Intel I7-based laptop processes the touching data of both devices via a Bluetooth connection for precision tracking using computer vision software. The ActiTouch platform works by utilizing the data taken from completing the circuit, which registers as a signal spike for a touch event on a segmented area of the skin, be it on the hand or arm.
Those signal spikes can then be translated into inputs for a myriad of applications, including gaming, creating artwork, playing music, or even used to message contacts in your smartphone. More information on the ActiTouch AR/VR interactive platform can be found in the Future Interface Group recently released paper entitled “ActiTouch: Robust Touch Detection for On-Skin AR/VR Interfaces.”