Device that lets you read emails, texts with your skin

Facebook  has developed a futuristic device that allows users to read emails and text messages with their skin. A cast-like device is strapped onto the user’s arm that uses haptic sensors to transmit waves in certain patterns.   The patterns feel like subtle pokes on the skin that represent a spoken or written language. Its developers […]

Facebook  has developed a futuristic device that allows users to read emails and text messages with their skin.

A cast-like device is strapped onto the user’s arm that uses haptic sensors to transmit waves in certain patterns.  

The patterns feel like subtle pokes on the skin that represent a spoken or written language.

Its developers say the novel technology could curb smartphone addiction and even help people with visual and auditory impairments communicate. The prototype wearable was revealed in a research paper published earlier this month, but Facebook presented the work this week at a conference in Canada. 

In the study, the scientists show how people can learn how to use the device when assisted by an easy-to-use application.

Users receive slight vibrations on their arm that are coded into ‘phonemes’, which is a unit of spoken language that’s applicable to all languages, making it easy to learn.

So easy, in fact, that Facebook researchers say that participants were able to learn four different phonemes in just three minutes.  

‘Our demonstration shows that naïve users can quickly learn the tactile coding, generalize it to new words, and use them in structured sentences for everyday discreet communication, all within 3 minutes,’ the study explains. 

Participants were able to recognize 100 words after an hour and a half of training, Ali Israr, who led the study, told MIT Technology Review. 

The researchers took some cues from braille as an example of how touch or vibration can be used to communicate.  

The cast is outfitted with two displays that each have eight tactors, or voice coils, surrounded by a 3D printed case and embedded with a foam sheet.  Vibrations are delivered in 250hz waves and the taps that are felt on the arm only last about 144 milliseconds. 

‘We use the forearm as the medium because it has a better tactile sensitivity than most body parts, is less likely to disrupt daily activity compared to the hand and is more socially acceptable than the forehead or feet,’ the researchers said. 

To that end, the researchers used phonemes because they’re easier to transmit than letters. 

In order to transmit phonemes, the researchers had to make sure they differentiate between voiced and voiceless consonants. 

For example, sounds like ‘ba’, ‘da’ and ‘ga’ are articulated using the lips, gums and roof of the mouth, while ‘pa’ and ‘ta’ are only articulated using air. 

To differentiate between the two, the system either sends a burst of waves or a single wave.