Giving electronics the finger

Boffins at Microsoft have been working on a high-tech armband that will let you interact with their electronic devices through a flick of the finger. The purpose is to make it even easier to work gadgets or computers, for instance, to answer the phone with just a twitch of a finger when you’re driving the car. In time, the researchers say, the armband might look like a watch or a bracelet. Arm-azing bling.

It’s called a muscle-computer interface or MUCI – not to be confused with mucus. It can be worn on the forearm and recognizes movements by monitoring muscle activity, and will be able to recognise which finger movements you’re making by decoding the voltage produced by muscle twitches.

And researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK are taking it one step further. Soon you could be controlling your gadgets and MP3 players, for example, with just a foot tap, a change of walking pace, or a mere shrug of the shoulders!

So practice fidgeting. Your future might depend on it.

Sources: Paul Marks, New Scientist, 24 April 2008, Microsoft Research MUCI.