PhonePoint Pen application is a hand-talkers' dream come true

by Tim Stevens posted Jun 11th 2009 at 6:57AM

Know someone who talks with their hands so expressively that you have to step back or risk catching a wayward exclamation point in the face? The video after the break will make their day. Students at Duke University have come up with a way to use phone accelerometers to capture gestures with surprising precision, allowing them to pipe those motions through a character recognition algorithm and, hey presto, turn flapping hands into letters and numbers. The prototype app is called PhonePoint Pen, and while right now the process looks painfully slow, with large, precise motions required, with a few months or years of refinements you might just be able to jot down a quick text to a friend while running between terminals, all without putting down the double latte that just cost you $8 at the airport food court. The future, dear readers, it's closer than you think.

[Via Yahoo! News]

Filed under: Messaging, Software

Tags: accelerometer, application, duke, duke university, DukeUniversity, handwriting recognition, HandwritingRecognition, phone app, phone application, PhoneApp, PhoneApplication, phonepoint pen, PhonepointPen

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SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt) @ Jun 11th 2009 9:58AM

i am starting to get sick of these motion controls in everything. who wants to wave their phone around like an idiot? i really don't see this as practical in any fashion. and their reason behind it "for people who don't like to type on the phone" is crazy because people who don't like to talk on the phone.....would just call.

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