Hack a Day » inputdevice

DIY joystick glove

Will O'Brien — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:40:00 +0000

[Elf] sent in this interesting DIY joystick glove. There aren’t many details on the actual glove switch design, but from the schematic on the site, it seems to mostly consist of micro-switches with some pot adjusted transistors to calibrate the X-Y signals.

Clove 2 glove for one handed input

Caleb Kraft — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:00:00 +0000

[Christopher Mitchell] (previously on Hack a Day) has come up with a rather interesting input device. The Clove 2 glove is a Bluetooth data input interface. The goal is to be able to “type” without the use of a traditional keyboard. Key strokes are achieved through finger movements. Your computer simply sees this as a Bluetooth HID device and some software translates it for you.

While it may seem confusing, he’s designed it to be very similar to typing on a keyboard. Each finger movement or combination is a key stroke. Just like typing on a regular keyboard, there are modifying strokes such as ALT or shift that effect others. Most common used keys require the least combinations of finger movements.

[Christopher] put some extra effort in to making this user friendly by adding some features that you might not have thought of at first. For example, the ALT and shift keys work similar to a phone interface. When you press them, the next keystroke is effected. There is also audio feedback to let you know that this has happened. Each normal keystroke makes a click, while each modifier has a unique tone.

They’re not being stingy with information either. The site has a complete writeup of how to make the glove yourself. Each step has a detailed description and pictures as well as downloadable schematics.

This method of input seems so unobtrusive. We can visualize this being used in warehouses or even by doctors for different types of input when keeping your hands available is necessary. Maybe a sock version should be next in line!

Eee PC 900 touchscreen

Juan Aguilar — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Jkkmobile has just posted their touchscreen hack for an Eee PC 900, and it looks great. Installation of this kit is pretty easy, just fit the panel to the screen, connect the controller to the USB lines, close it up, calibrate it, and you’re done. The controller board is placed on top of the WiFi card. Jkkmobile has informed us of touchscreens for older Eee PCs before, but this is one of the first we’ve seen for a 900+ model. The post lists a few sources for touchscreen kits, but no word on which one they used.