Motion Sensor Ring for Contactless Text Entry on Wearables
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wearable computers face challenges in text entry due to limited space for keypads or keyboards, making existing solutions cumbersome, and require significant processing power, which is not suitable for devices with limited battery capacity.
Innovation Solution
A system using a finger ring-like sensor device with motion sensors to detect finger movements, transmitting data wirelessly to a wearable computing device, which presents a virtual keyboard and recognizes tapping and swiping motions to select keys, reducing the need for physical contact and processing power.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a physical keypad or keyboard is provided on wearable computers, then text entry functionality is enabled, but the device size and complexity increase, making it unsuitable for wearable form factors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical keyboard system with a motion sensing system. A sensor device detects finger motions in three-dimensional space, and a processor translates these motions into text input commands, eliminating the need for physical keys while maintaining text entry functionality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary sensor device that captures finger motions and translates them into digital signals. This intermediary acts as a mediator between the user's physical gestures and the computing device's input processing, enabling text entry without direct physical contact
2Ease of operation
If a virtual keyboard is displayed on the wearable device screen, then text entry is possible, but the processing power and battery consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes the computationally intensive virtual keyboard interface with a motion-based input system. Motion sensors detect finger gestures and the processor directly translates these into text commands, bypassing the need for visual keyboard rendering and reducing processing requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the text entry functionality from the visual display interface and relocates it to the motion sensing system. By separating the input detection (motion sensing) from the output display (text rendering), the system reduces the processing burden on the wearable device
3Ease of operation
If motion sensing is used to detect finger gestures, then text entry becomes possible without physical contact, but the system requires sophisticated processing algorithms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the text entry process into distinct motion phases: approach motion, tapping motion, and release motion. Each phase is detected and processed independently, simplifying the overall algorithm by breaking down complex gestures into manageable sequential components
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary motion detection and filtering before full processing. The sensor device continuously monitors finger motions and pre-processes the data to identify potential input gestures, reducing the computational load on the main processor by filtering out non-input motions beforehand
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables easy and practical text entry on wearable devices without the need for large keypads, conserving processing power and battery life, allowing users to select keys in free space with minimal processing requirements.
Implementation Method 1
A system uses a finger ring-like sensor device with motion sensors to detect finger movements
Data Source
AI summary
A system for text entry for a computing device is described as including a sensor device and a computing device. The sensor device includes a motion sensor. The computing device is in wireless communication with the sensor device. The computing device includes a display and a processor configured to present a user input screen on the display, to receive motion data from the sensor device, to select a key based on the motion data and to present the selected key on the display.