BiTipText enables text entry across two index finger-worn keyboards

Typing with your thumbs on a smartphone has become an everyday activity for many, but what if you could enter text by simply tapping on your index fingers? With BiTipText, that may soon be a reality. 

The researchers’ prototype consists of an interactive skin overlay made out of flexible PCB material, allowing an Arduino Uno and MPR121 sensor chip to read capacitive signals from both digits. 

– Werbung –

In testing, users were able to enter text at over 23 WPM, with a 0.03% uncorrected error rate. Notably, the two-handed implementation means that software can determine not only the position of presses, but the sequence of left/right inputs to help with word interpretation.

More details on the bimanual text input method can be found in the team’s paper here.