Google seems to be thinking along the lines of equipping its wearable devices with a skin interface, as per a patent application by the company, which was spotted by LetsGoDigital. As per the patent, which was filed with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) in 2020, the tech giant was interested in developing a ‘skin interface for wearables’. The patent got the WIPO approval this month.
As per the patent, Google is looking at letting wearable devices like earbuds, smart glasses and smartwatches be controlled via a ‘skin interface’ which entails using gesture control via the skin of the user.
How it is described to work is that the user has to make a swipe or tap gesture on the part of their skin close to where they are wearing the device. The gesture will start a mechanical wave which will then be detected by the sensors and the accelerometer in the device and then the relevant function will be carried out. This would be made possible by using the Sensor Fusion technology, which employs the use of several sensors for an accurate detection of the wave.
Some of the gestures may include vertical or horizontal swipes, short and long taps, taps with more than one finger to issue different commands like picking up or ending a phone call, controlling the volume, play or pause audio etc. The gesture tech would eliminate the need for touching your device and may work to the user’s advantage in the case of earbuds as the fit of the device in the ear would not get disturbed when relying solely on the gestures.
