Input interface using fingertip

Abstract

This paper proposed an input interface that needs no keypad on small-sized portable equipment such as portable game machines. ON/OFF switches are provided on user's ten fingertips of both hands in our proposed method. Each of these fingertips is provided with one of control signals that work as binary number and so on. The combination of characters onto those fingertips is kept changeable by the user. A prototype was created to verify the proposal and evaluated whether it is effective as a user interface for data entry. This method has a feature that the needed characters can be entered if the user press user's fingertips to any part of the user's body, for example, without needing any specific key pad on the surface of a small-sized portable terminal. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.