Skinput Turns Your Body Into A Control Surface. Yum!

In this video, Chris Harrison demonstrates Skinput – new technology that turns your body into an input device.

Skinput uses bio-acoustic sensing technology that allows your body to be used as a large input surface:

Appropriating the human body as an input device is appealing not only because we have roughly two square meters of external surface area, but also because much of it is easily accessible by our hands (e.g., arms, upper legs, torso). Furthermore, proprioception (our sense of how our body is configured in three-dimensional space) allows us to accurately interact with our bodies in an eyes-free manner.

For example, we can readily flick each of our fingers, touch the tip of our nose, and clap our hands together without visual assistance. Few external input devices can claim this accurate, eyes-free input characteristic and provide such a large interaction area.

It’s an open-ended idea – but with wearable synthesizers becoming cheap and ubiquitous in the form of iPhone apps, why limit interaction to a 3.5″ display?

Skinput music applications can’t be too far off.

Need a drum pad? Use your arm!

What do you think of the possibility of turning your body into a control surface?

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