A pair of ‘Itchy’ concept glasses could become the next big thing in remote controlling your gadgets.
Experts have come up with smart specs, called the ‘Itchy Nose’, that can interpret the way you touch your nose to allow you to reject a call, pause a video, or skip a song.
The unusual design is aimed at helping people avoid committing a number of very modern social faux pas, including reaching for phones when conversing with others.
A pair of concept sunglasses could become the next big thing in remote controlling your gadgets and gizmos. Experts have come up the Itchy Nose that can interpret the way you touch your nose to allow you to reject a call, pause a video, or skip a song
The project involves computer scientists from KAIST University in South Korea, Keio University in Japan, the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US.
The glasses come equipped with electrooculography (EOG) sensors on the bridge and nose pads of the frame.
This means the wearer’s nose movements can be tracked, and the sensors convert these into specific commands.
Speaking to The Verge, co-creator and study first author Juyoung Lee, said: ‘If an important text from a spouse came in during a business meeting, the user could check it and dismiss it quickly without calling undue attention to the interaction.
‘Similarly, if the user had a list of names and faces to remind her of who is in the meeting, she could scroll through the list until she found the person whose name she forgot.
‘These quick interactions can be very useful but are rare enough to not attract attention.’
EOG sensors are normally used to measure electrical signals in and around the eyes, and have been used in the movie industry to capture a CGI actor’s facial expression.
The unusual design is aimed at helping people avoid committing a number of very modern social faux pas, including reaching for phones when conversing with others. A bluetooth module communicates with your electronic device
The glasses come equipped with electrooculography (EOG) sensors on the bridge and nose pads of the frame. This means the wearer’s nose movements can be tracked, and the sensors convert these into specific commands
They have also been used to diagnosing medical conditions.
In the Itchy Nose system, they detect the movement of the wearers nose.
By touching the nose in various way, this alters the electrical signal running through each of the points of contact.
By identifying specific signatures of each motion, the team was able to calibrate the Itchy Nose to perform a variety of actions.
Control motions include, flicking and pushing the nose to one side or the other, and rubbing the bottom.
EOG sensors are normally used to measure electrical signals in and around the eyes, and have been used in the movie industry to capture a CGI actor’s facial expression. In the Itchy Nose system, they detect the movement of the wearers nose
By identifying specific signatures of each motion, the team was able to calibrate the Itchy Nose to perform a variety of actions
Control motions include, flicking and pushing the nose to one side or the other, and rubbing the bottom
The glasses could be used to control basic functions on a smartphone.
With a flick of the nose you could adjust the volume on your music player or send a pre-composed text message response.
You could also flick through photos and webpages without drawing attention to yourself.
The full findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers.