Skip to main content

‘Airwriting’ glove lets you text by writing in the air

airwriter
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The increasing number of gesture-control technologies being introduced these days means that a time may actually come when you can control your whole house with just the wave of a hand. Hot on the heels of the MYO armband that lets you control Macs and PCs through gesture is the “Airwriting” glove – a glove that gives you the power to compose emails and text messages by writing on, you guessed it, air. 

The glove, developed by researchers from the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie in Germany, contains sensors that record hand movements. A computer system captures and decodes those movements. It has the capacity to differentiate between gestures meant to spell words and random, unrelated gestures, so you can wear the glove just fine and airwrite whenever you like while doing something else. “All movements that are not similar to writing, such as cooking, doing laundry, waving to someone, are ignored,” Doctorate student Christoph Amma, one of the developers, said on airwriter’s press release. “The system runs in the background without interpreting every movement as computer input.”Amma believes that the technology could eventually be incorporated into clothing – like a wristband – for everyday use.

The system currently recognizes capitalized letters and has a total vocabulary of 8,000 words. But, since the glove is just a prototype, it’s nowhere near perfect. It has an 11 percent error rate that goes down to 3 percent the more you use it and the more the system gets used your movements. Amma and fellow developer Professor Tanja Schultz recently received the Google Faculty Research Award worth $81,000, meant to be used to develop the technology for mobile devices, which means that in the future, America’s fastest texter could also be the the nation’s best charades player. 

Mariella Moon
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Mariella loves working on both helpful and awe-inspiring science and technology stories. When she's not at her desk writing…
PC airflow guide: How to position your fans for best cooling
Exhaust fan in PC case.

Fan placement is an important component in your system's cooling. The quantity, positioning, and orientation of fans affects overall system performance, noise levels, and how often you need to clean your whole system out. Although you aren't going to see a dramatic difference in your PC's performance from adding one more fan, or making sure they're pushing instead of pulling (or vice versa), it's still useful to optimize this part of your PC's cooling to get the best experience for you, the PC user.

So, whether you're looking to boost your system's cooling to improve your overclock, or want to keep your fan speeds as low as possible without overheating, here's a guide to PC airflow, as well as some suggestions on fan placement and position that you might find useful.
Get the basics down

Read more
Why you should buy a MacBook Pro instead of a MacBook Air
The 14-inch MacBook Pro on a window sill.

There are plenty of reasons to buy a MacBook Air instead of a MacBook Pro. If you want a MacBook on a budget, you don't necessarily need the goodies that come with upgrading to the MacBook Pro.

That being said, I'm going to argue for spending a little more. In my experience, the MacBook Pro offers several distinct advantages that help justify a higher price, especially with the introduction of the more affordable MacBook Pro 14 with the base M3. If you can stretch your budget a bit, here's why I think you should buy a MacBook Pro instead of a MacBook Air.
Setting the stage: pricing

Read more
Windows 11 vs. Windows 10: finally time to upgrade?
The screen of the Surface Pro 9.

Windows 11 is the newest version of Windows, and it's one of the best Windows versions released. At launch, the operating system was very similar to Windows 10, but it has morphed a lot over the past several years. Now, Windows 11 has several key differences compared to Windows 10.

If you've been holding out on upgrading, we have everything you need to know about Windows 11 and how it's different than Windows 10 in this article. We'll detail the differences, as well as show you the areas where Windows 11 is growing faster than Windows 10.
Windows 11 vs. Windows 10: what's new

Read more