Since the advent of touch screens there has been a flourishing of mobile devices and tablets: the way we interact with these gadgets has changed at an impressive speed.
Today some may mistakenly imagine that the 'finger-on-screen' scheme is the one on which the fortune of future technologies will be built, but it is nowhere written: a prototype currently under study promises to make us use a device 'by touching 'any surface.
Magic Finger is a joint project developed by two Canadian universities (Alberta and Toronto) in collaboration with Autodesk: it combines a micro-camera with an optical motion sensor that you will not easily forget (if only for the fact of 'tying it to your finger'. Ok. Very bad). This prototype is able to make us work on a desk, a piece of paper and even our skin. Magic Finger can execute commands with gesture combinations and transfer data from one 'finger' to another.
The device is calibrated on 22 types of surfaces, with an astounding accuracy of 98.9%. If so much gives me so much, we will say goodbye to the mouse and the abuse of the term 'touchscreen' soon.
Here is a video showing Magic Finger in action.
[Youtube] WgR1358xZaY [/ youtube]
