How will you like to use your body, or rather the skin on any part of your body as an input device. Precisely as a touchscreen for your computer and electronic devices? Imagine tapping your skin in order to control audio devices, play games, make phone calls, etc. Sounds like fiction I know. But the technology to do just that is already around. Maybe not yet available for you and I to play with. But the technology is already out of the laboratories.

Skinput Can Turn Your Skin Into A Touchscreen For Your Device

I read an article this morning on Physorg.com that stated that a new skin-based interface technology called Skinput has been developed. Skinput allows users to use their own hands and arm as touchscreens by detecting the various ultralow-frequency sounds produced when tapping different parts of the skin. (Never mind the technical terms). The simple fact is that you can control a device by using your finger to tap the image projected to your skin, courtesy, skinput.  I got a video of skinput in action from Youtube also.

Skinput enables a user to control devices via visual keyboard, menu, or other graphics that are beamed onto the user’s skin from a projector. Then an acoustic detector determines which part of the display is being activated by the user’s touch.

The report stated that this new technology is a collaboration between Chris Harrison of Carnegie Mellon University and Desney Tan of Microsoft Research Lab in Redmond, Washington. You can get more technical details by reading the original article at Physorg.com

I really wonder what effect this will have on the computer hardware we presently have around. It sure will get some of them further miniaturized. A palmtop computer will now have greater potential to compete favorably with the bigger netbooks and laptops as skinput turns your skin into a touchscreen.

• Computers As Tools For Running Your Business (1)