Ever find yourself wishing that you could control your smart phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) without even using the small screen? If you don’t mind a little bit of skin contact, your wish has been granted.

A collaboration between Microsoft and Carnegie Melon University has produced a new technology dangerously close to the lore of sci-fi. This partnership has resulted in a technology that enables users of laptops, smart phones and PDAs to use points on their own bodies to manipulate controls previously governed by a mouse and keyboard.

This bona fide bio-man creation is cleverly called ‘Skinput,’ described by Microsoft as ‘a technology that appropriates the human body for acoustic transmission, allowing the skin to be used as an input system,’ on its Web site. Hence, Skinput.

This gadget was created in response to the problem associated with the increasingly smaller and smaller smart phones and PDAs on the market: As terminals become smaller and more portable, they lose the ability to offer easy input functions. While this detracts from usability, the convenience of easy portability is too important to sacrifice. The solution? Use a surface that is always with you as an input system.

A special armband has been created that can sense skin contact on various parts of a user’s arm and interpret them into commands one would typically use a touch screen or mini keyboard to create.

The best part is that this can be done without the sci-fi-esque electronic implants one might imagine. In order to use Skinput, all that is really needed is the armband (currently in its rudimentary stage) and an arm. For those without arms, it is probable that Microsoft will develop the same technology for use on legs as well.

This armband involves of a series of sensors, referred to by Microsoft as a ‘bio-acoustic sensing array,’ that monitors the distinct vibrations created by tapping a specific part of your forearm.

In the current prototype of this emerging technology, a user may choose from three basic input layouts. First is the five-finger location method. This method senses vibrations made from each of the five fingers on one hand of a user. The next is the whole-arm approach, which uses five strategically placed locations, implementing the forearm, wrist, palm of the hand, thumb and middle finger. Last is the forearm technique that uses 10 sensible spots spanning the length of the user’s forearm.

The vibrations of tapping your arm near your wrist create significantly different vibrations than those made from tapping the middle of your forearm. These vibrations can be unique enough that your arm-sponsored ‘buttons’ can be mere centimeters away and still remain separate entities.

Is the possibility of ditching difficult input systems and gaining a really awesome armband too good to be true? Nope, it’s reality.

Want to play a Tetris game? Don’t struggle tapping that tiny screen! Just throw on the bulky black armband (hopefully Microsoft will offer these in an array of colors so it’s possible to accessorize accordingly) and tap away on that pale forearm of yours. Going for a jog and don’t want to take your iPod out of its handy arm-pack to change that Metallica song to DJ Tiesto? It can all be done at the tip of your fingers. Literally.

Although there is currently no set release date, with such good results from Microsoft’s initial user study, tech bloggers are speculating this new gadget will be on the market within a year.

In the meantime, treasure your remaining time with your touch screen and keep those forearms toned and ready to be fondled.

Jessica Smith is a sophomore television, radio and film and information management technologies major. She doesn’t advise you testing Skinput on other sensitive parts of your body. If you have any questions regarding this, contact her at jlsmit22@syr.edu.

Published on March 3, 2010 at 12:00 pm