Handwriting Reco To Get the Glove Treatment

If folks from Duke University, Lawrence University, and Norconnect, Inc have anything to say about it, you could be writing your next set of notes using a unique glove that translates the electrical signals from your hand into digital text. Using this glove, you’ll be able to write on any surface using any paper, pen, pencil, or finger that you want.

From Scientific American:

In the first phase of his research, Linderman, along with Mikhail Lebedev, a senior research scientist in Duke University’s Department of Neurobiology (with expertise in modeling and statistical analysis), and Joseph Erlichman, a neuroscientist and professor of biology at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., (whose specialization is hand muscle anatomy, physiology and electromyography, or EMG), conducted a series of experiments to better understand how the hand’s muscles work during the act of writing. As with any bodily movement, muscle tissue contracts and emits electrical signals that are sent to the brain when pen is put to paper.

To read these signals, the researchers created a prototype glove with electrodes positioned over different muscles in the hand and connected to a computer. As the hand moved, signals were recorded via EMG from the different muscles involved in the process. When researchers examined the results of these tests, they found patterns unique to individual characters that the hand had drawn.

Norconnect and the universities are heading to phase 2 of their project, which is expected to utilize Bluetooth to transfer the signals from the glove to the computer. Expects the glove to retail for around $100 when / if it comes to market.

Thanks for the link, Chris Owens.