Pranav Mistry created a wonderful wearable gesture recognition plus utility software system that does things like projects graphs of quality on grocery items or lets you type on virtual surfaces; His system as depicted at a TEDtalk video uses finger color dots that the computer uses to track gestures
Well obviously these color dots could be replaced with UV or IR color dots that only the computer sees; further a nonvisible to humans henna like keratin reactive UV material could mean that you just grip a patterning surface once every few months to create a durable nonvisible gesture tracking glyph on your fingers
I think Mistrys wonderful idea can go further with relative pressure sensation; a fluid like a moisturizer with a few particles of pressure sensitive liquid crystal (at UV wavelengths) could actually detect not just gesture It could detect intensity of force or touch
This rather funly would mean that the computer could do things like describe or enhance human touch A backrub or possibly sex could be digitally guided to benefit-- beanangel, May 13 2010 wearable gesture recognition 2:00 minutes is where the video gets nifty http://www.youtube....r#p/u/5/nZ-VjUKAsao [beanangel, May 13 2010] "A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wavebands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme. "
- Douglas Adams-- wagster, May 13 2010 //you had to sit infuriatingly still// Also, you'd only be able to wash your hands every few months. That's not central to the idea, though, so not really a flaw.
The idea of an augmented reality display suggesting where next to caress one's lover though ... that's just a bit too posthuman for my taste.-- mouseposture, May 13 2010 I don't understand the bit about pressure sensation. If you're pressing something/someone/someone's something, how does the computer see the pressure-sensitive ink on your fingertips?-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 13 2010 So basically we would be putting on UV reactive nail polish? Very easy to adopt I suppose. although I can only think of the legion of early adopter geeks painting their nails "web 3.0 invisible"-- metarinka, May 14 2010 [mb] the edges of a grip surface or the areas that touch has recently passed near show color the shift with gradual change just like color changing liquid crystal things (link)
I was going to put up a link yet even google cannot find color changing liquid crystal things; If you move a pressure point along the surface of an old LCD monitor though it will leave a gradual trail; the pressure sensitive liquid crystal toys at the science center were nonelectric they had a color shit time of immediate to minutes
the trail occurs absent polarization or electricity If Mistrys group would like to they could put a polarizing filter on the CCD to create orders of magnitude greater contrast plus visibility to software-- beanangel, May 14 2010 random, halfbakery