UnwiredView has discovered that Google has filed for a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office called "Methods and Systems for a Virtual Input Device" (Patent 20130016070) which allows users of its Project Glass AR goggles to input text by simply typing on their skin.
According to the patent, this virtual typing will be accomplished thanks to a laser projector mounted on the arm of the specs. It will project a keyboard onto the user's hand or forearm, creating a fleshy touchscreen. Input methods will include tapping on the skin, and actually moving the targeted hand itself.
Based on the diagrams, Google plans to project a numeric keypad on the user's hand, possibly for manually punching in phone numbers or entering PIN-based codes when using Google's specs on the go. Additional function buttons will be projected on the user's wrist while a full-blown keyboard will likely be projected onto the surface of a desk.
Here's the actual patent abstract:
"The present application discloses systems and methods for a virtual input device. In one example, the virtual input device includes a projector and a camera. The projector projects a pattern onto a surface. The camera captures images that can be interpreted by a processor to determine actions. The projector may be mounted on an arm of a pair of eyeglasses and the camera may be mounted on an opposite arm of the eyeglasses. A pattern for a virtual input device can be projected onto a "display hand" of a user, and the camera may be able to detect when the user uses an opposite hand to select items of the virtual input device. In another example, the camera may detect when the display hand is moving and interpret display hand movements as inputs to the virtual input device, and/or realign the projection onto the moving display hand."
The Google patent was filed back on June 26, 2012, and made pubic on January 17. The inventors are listed to be Google's own Thad Eugene Starner, Liang-Yu (Tom) Chi, and Luis Ricardo Prada Gomez. Google has the patent listed locally here, and includes the illustrations if you can't get them to load from the USPTO's link.
What's interesting about this patent application is that users may be able to choose a number or letter by moving the "display hand". As the diagram shows, the virtual pad may be stationary as the central point of the palm, originally designated as the #5 key, slides underneath in left, right, up and down positions to choose additional numbers. The diagram also shows the user making a fist as one of the many gestures.
On the surface this patent looks rather cool, but it could prove dangerous if the user is walking down a crowded sidewalk, trying to dial a phone number and chopping the air with his hand like some pretend karate master. Whoops, sorry about your eye, pal.
