Tip-Tap Provides Battery-Free, Disposable Computer Input

You may be tempted to buy a new Apple iPhone every year or two, but very few electronic devices are actually intended to be disposable. The reason is pretty obvious: electronics are expensive and people don’t like to just throw them away. But technology has progressed to the point where simple electronic devices can be produced very affordably. If a device costs less than a dollar, you probably won’t be too concerned about tossing it out after a day of use. That’s the idea behind Tip-Tap, which provides battery-free, disposable input that could be useful for applications such as connected surgical gloves.

One of the major factors limiting the practicality of disposable electronic devices is the battery. Batteries can contain corrosive liquids and toxic metals, which means they have to be carefully disposed of. But the Tip-Tap technology doesn't require any kind of battery, and that makes it far easier to discard safely. The lack of battery also reduces the cost to produce a Tip-Tap device. Despite not having a battery, Tip-Tap can register multiple unique input commands. Those can be sent to a computer up to four meters away.

Tip-Tap was developed by researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). It relies on RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification), which is the same technology that is commonly used for security access key cards. RFID chips don’t require a battery, because they are energized by the radio waves emitted by the receiver. In this case, the returned RFID signal is modified by a two-dimensional input matrix. That matrix covers the user’s thumb and forefinger, and can detect when they tap their thumb on different parts of their forefinger.

As the research team envisions it, Tip-Tap could be integrated into disposable surgical gloves. These would allow a surgeon to control a computer while keeping their gloves sterile. The cost of Tip-Tap surgical gloves would likely be less than a dollar—a mere drop in the bucket when it comes to surgical supplies. Of course, Tip-Tap could also be useful in other industries. For example, Tip-Tap technology integrated into weightlifting gloves that would make it easy to control the music playing on your smartphone while you’re exercising at the gym. All of the technology to accomplish this is readily-available and practical today, which means Tip-Tap could be on the market soon if there is enough demand for it.