ArmKeypad: 腕へのタップ入力による機器操作

抄録

In this information society, we have a lot of situations to use a device. But we can not always hold the device and look at the screen while controlling it. So we propose a new input interface called "ArmKeypad" which can control some devices by tapping on the human's arm anytime. Input areas are assigned to 3 parts of arm that is divided into the "upper arm", the "upper side of lower arm" and the "downside of lower arm". In this instance, we apply this suggestion to the situation of "Controlling the music player while running exercise. "This input method has 4 advantages. The first is you can use input areas widely on arm. The second is you can feel target arm's area before tapping by the arm's somesthetic sense. The third is you can feel tapped position by your tactile perception. The last is you need not memorize complex operation method for input to the command. This system is composed of acceleration sensor at the both of wrists. It can recognize tapped position by using the ratio between the amplitude of left and right acceleration's value. When you tap your own arm, the impact shock transmit into the arm, but the impact shock is decreasing depend on the length from tapped position to sensing position. On the other hand, the impact shock transmits to the sensing position directly on the tapping arm. We performed experiments for accuracy estimate for the prototype of the"ArmKeypad".