A new device is being presented to technologists this week that lets you control your car stereo by finger movements while your hands are still gripping the steering wheel.
You just signal with your index finger and the volume of the car stereo is raised or the AC is turned down.
Still in the experimental stage, the “finger gesture” system uses electromagnetic sensors in the dashboard to detect finger movements. (You must be holding the steering wheel in the classic 10- and 2-o’clock positions and you must be driving straight). It can then read the shapes your finger draws in the air, explains the Technology Review (published by MIT).
In a recent test, 6 people were asked to try out the system called Geremin. It was accurate 86 percent of the time using 10 different gestures (moving the finger up/down, left/right, in circles and other shapes).
The work is being presented this week at the International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces in Palo Alto, California.
But, don’t we already have steering wheel controls? Co-developer and researcher Christian Muller says you can do much more with finger gestures for better control.
The system is expected to be much cheaper than current camera based car systems as each sensor costs about 50 cents.
Muller hopes to combine the finger control with speech recognition so you can send text messages in the car. He is a researcher at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence where we presume the system was developed.
Source: Technology Review by MIT
I hope this comes out soon! Changing the songs on my iPod is probably the only time I am not a safe driver, but I want to listen to something good!!!