(credit: DisneyResearchHub)
Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University have hacked together a proof-of-concept smartwatch that uses electromagnetic noise profiles to detect, in real-time, when the wearer is touching an item. The group calls the idea "EM-Sense."
Many everyday objects give off some amount of electromagnetic (EM) noise, and when your squishy, conductive body comes into contact with an item, its EM signals enter your body. Disney's proof-of-concept augments a smartwatch to be able to read those signals, and apparently the signals are unique enough that the watch can discern and reliably identify different objects. The EM signals have to be classified beforehand, but Disney says that "discrimination between dozens of objects is feasible, independent of wearer, time, and local environment." Basically, you touch your laptop, and the smartwatch knows you're touching your laptop.
Disney's prototype looks to be a Samsung Galaxy Gear with a whole bunch of extras attached to it. In a PDF released on the Disney Research site, the group says it transformed a "low-cost software-defined radio receiver" into a "fast, wideband, general purpose EM sensor." On the prototype, this radio receiver lives in an external box that sticks out of the watch. A band of copper tape sits under the Galaxy Gear and connects to the antenna, and in many images there is a box and a USB cable sticking out of the watch. The researchers say the sensing setup is something "researchers and hobbyists can replicate" and that it cost the group "under $10."
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