Finger glide-and-touch encodes symbols
Glancing Pad has a built in capability to trace and record all fingertip motions in the vicinity of the pad surface, and to detect touches to its surface. Both the off-pad track and the touch are crucial for the Glancing Pad operation. During operation fingers trace an 'endless' loop, and the touch to the pad instructs the underlying program how to locate a symbol-encoding segment within the loop. Actually, the start and end of segments are closely tied to the time of touch (e.g. the segment begins 0.3 sec before and ends 0.05 sec after the touch).
Along with initiating trajectory-processing, touch has another important role to play; it generates tactile information that the hand sensory apparatus sends to the brain. Such haptic feedback is necessary to precisely adjust the motion range, and especially the distances at which the fingers glide above the pad during the glance-encoding motions. Distancing of fingers from the pad has considerable tolerance range, but also has its limits; keeping the fingers too far above makes glancing less efficient, while being too close poses the risk of unintended touching. Good tactile feedback is necessary for the accuracy and confidence of user-performed encoding actions.
Capability to track the position of all fingers when they glide above the pad is critical for Glancing Pad function because each finger position aids in establishing the identity of the finger that came in contact with the pad (the finger to actually encode the symbol).
Tracking the motions of all fingers is necessary for quite another reason. If the data processing program encounters a defective or ambiguous trajectory, the accuracy of such trajectory may be verified and, if needed, corrected by analyzing and comparing traces produced by other fingers (notice that all the fingers of one hand tend to make a simultaneous and broadly similar motion). In situations when recorded signal is noisy or in any other way defective, such redundancy secures accurate decoding.
Mini-gestures
In contrast to gesture interfaces, Glancing Pad is operated with a form of mini-gestures. These diminutive glancing motions will revolutionize human machine communication. Here is why and how.
Quite recently the inevitability of keyboard decline took hold among the Big Players. Already, hand gestures are used in several marketed cellular telephones. After Steve demonstrated that it works, Bill himself recently admitted that people should and will be interacting with computers by using gestures. Other are lining up to join the party. Gestures are hot!
Glancing, though a close relative to gestures, is fundamentally different and it is a far superior idea.
Glances were never before considered for communicative purpose. Glancing opens a new field in human-machine interaction. The major strength of glancing lays in swiftness and shortness of motions required to operate the pad. Is the human hand capable of acquiring such a skill? The answer is a confident - Yes.
Learning glancing starts by practicing the basic imaginary template. The freshly memorized motor skill is gradually refined through everyday use. With experience, the motions become instinctively automatic; new shortcuts and new ways to operate the Glancing Pad are discovered and established. Expert users will quickly develop the skill of mini-glances: because shorter motions are faster, this will further improve the speed of encoding.
With persistent training, our hand musculature, as well as the controlling centers in the brain, will adapt to such diminutive motions. Although glances may be easily mastered by anyone, the most spectacular performers will be the younger users, benefiting by the early training.
Single-handed use of Glancing Pad was heralded as its primary advantage, but the pad might be operated with both hands as well. Dividing the job between hands may further improve the encoding speed.
Glances, chords, gestures…
Although Glancing Pad continually traces motions of all fingers, encoding is done one finger at a time. The question may be posed: Why not use the multi-finger encoding scheme, involving, for example, glances performed simultaneously with two or more fingers? Multi-finger encoding is used in other interfaces. It is represented in a wide array of chording devices, constructed specifically to generate text. Entirely different multi-finger activity is represented by multi-touch gesture devices (e.g. the I-Phone interface). Although gesture techniques are not suited for text output, they usefully enhance the keyboard operation.
Glancing Pad combines keyboard, mouse and gesture functions, and was designed for speed and ease of operation. In its glancing mode (the object of my patent), it takes advantage of the fact that the human brain operates fastest when issuing simple sequential actions. The brain is capable of controlling several actions at once, processing in a parallel mode, but not without a price: the more complex the motion is, which is true of most chording motions, the more slowly it is being executed, and the more effort it takes.
Glancing though, having the advantage of being simple and sequential, is easy and fast.
Nevertheless, it is possible and sometimes desirable to use slower multi-finger glances to assist and expand on the standard set of Glancing Pad encoding motions. No doubt, in the future, the practice of glancing will lead to the development of one all-encompassing communicative technique: combining glances proper, multi-finger glances, taps, chording touches and gestures; fusing them all into a communication system of unmatched versatility and precision.
Glancing is exceptionally easy to learn
The key issue is whether Glancing-Pad has a chance to succeed while challenged by gesture or speech recognition technology. Despite undeniable utilitarian advantages, glancing is a new and complex skill, and winning the public acclaim might appear to depend on how difficult it is to learn.
The fact is, learning glancing can be a very pleasant experience. Learning glancing is exceptionally advantaged by the combination of ease of operation and instantaneous feedback.
The encoding rule for the user to learn is simple conceptually, and natural bio-mechanically. The electronic circuitry of Glancing-Pad responds to the minor movement of fingers by invoking symbols, which, subsequently converted to sounds may be spelled to users’ ears. Learning and memorization occur through repeated association of motions with the resultant sounds. There is no need for controlling or correcting finger positions. There is even no need to consciously attend to the task. Glancing never produces fatigue, either physical or mental. The device can be used amidst most daily activities. Learning can be undertaken either leisurely or intensely. Playing computer games involving glancing can further accelerate its progression. Through practice, glancing motions evolve into fluid all-finger activity. The design takes advantage of our brain capability to program stereotyped motor actions for a number of steps in advance, preparing motions for sequential rapid execution. Glance-Pad’s encoding standard assures not only the top speed, but also the broadest margin of separation between the encoding formants, a feature that further promotes learning.
Finally, the requirement for learning shouldn't be considered a setback for quite another reason. New scientific evidence indicates that perpetual learning of new skills is beneficial and even necessary, it enhances and preserves the brain function. Read the NYT article 'Exercise Your Brain, or Else You’ll ... Uh ... ' by Katie Hafner, Published: May 3, 2008