From: Science News, Vol. 156
November 20, 1999 - page 331

Excerpted from: Smart Outfit - Computers worn like clothes may alter the
fabric of everyday life 

By: Peter Weiss

At the Third International Symposium on Wearable Computers last month in San
Francisco, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley unveiled a
technology that will sense the position and motion of a person's hands
through minuscule sensors glued to the fingernails. 

So far, the Berkeley group has created a prototype glove with sample sensors
fastened to the tip of each finger. In the prototype, the sensors are wired
to a computer, but in the final version they will be wireless. 

Because the sensors detect acceleration from gravity and motion, the glove
converts gestures into patterns of electrical signals that the computer can
recognize as letters of the alphabet or other codes. No keyboard is required.
"It offers a brand-new way of thinking about how you interact with a computer
on a daily basis," says the team's Seth Hollar. 

So far, the system can only deal with gestures in which the hand stays still.
With additional programming, however, it can learn to recognize hand signals
involving motion as well, the developers say. Eventually people may paint the
sensors onto their nails, like nail polish, replacing the tiny detectors when
they wear off.

http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/~shollar/fingeracc/fingeracc.html