CMU's new technology turns your arm into touch screen for smartwatch

PITTSBURGH — New technology recently debuted by Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute's Future Interfaces Group has the capability to turn a person’s arm into a touch screen for a smartwatch, Channel 11’s news partners at

reported Wednesday.

"The screen is so small," Yang Zhang, a first-year Ph.D. student at CMU, told

when asked about using the tiny touchpad for a smartwatch.

"And your fingers are fat," his research partner, Gierad Laput, a third-year Ph.D. student, added. "So our question was, ‘How do you make the smartwatch bigger without actually making it bigger?’"

Yang and Laput are part of CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute's Future Interfaces Group, a lab that studies how people and computers interact. The team recently debuted SkinTrack, wearable technology that allows people to control their smartwatch touchpads from their arms.

A series of sensors on the watchband on one hand communicates with sensors on a ring on the other hand. The ring sends a high frequency signal through the fingers. The sensors track the movement of a finger across the arm or hand, in a manner that is similar to the way in which a GPS or cellphone towers track location, Laput told

. Those movements are transmitted to the smartwatch's touchpad, allowing users to simulate swiping and pressing buttons on their arm.

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