New Gadgets to Solve Fat Finger Fumbles
From: Jakarta Globe - 09/13/2010
By: Peter Zschunke 

Scientists such as Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) professor Patrick Baudisch
are developing new gadgets that may eliminate small keyboards and other
problems that make accessing services from handhelds difficult. Baudisch
believes enabling phones to perform essential computer functions is the way
forward. He notes that keyboard-screen combinations have increased rather
than decreased the size of mobile devices, and HPI's research agenda is to
circumvent the inherent smallness of handheld displays. HPI's Nanotouch
project is focused on devices with touchscreens that are operated from the
back, while Baudisch's Imaginary Interfaces project does away with the
touchscreen. Users wear a camera-equipped device that is directed by hand
gestures. The users' camera-monitored hands are bathed in infrared light, and
a sensor measures the time it takes for the rays to leave the light source,
bounce off the hands, and return to the camera. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/entertainment/new-gadgets-to-solve-fat-finger-fumbles/395873

Links:
Patrick Baudisch
http://www.patrickbaudisch.com/index.html

Imaginary Interfaces
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/baudisch/projects/imaginary_interfaces.html
http://www.andyross.net/imaginterfaces.htm

Spatial Interaction with Empty Hands and Without Visual Feedback (video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bruH_3_0wIQ

Hasso Plattner Institute
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/willkommen.html?L=1