Google honours German-made air-writing glove

Karlruhe, Germany - A pair of German computer scientists who created a glove that can recognize the motions for handwriting has won an 81,000-dollar award from Google for what is hoped will be a method that makes it easier to enter data into smart phones.

"The air-writing glove makes it possible to write in the air, like on an invisible blackboard," said inventor Christoph Amma. His Karlsruhe Institute for Technology said it could make typing on miniature smartphone keyboards unnecessary. Amma designed the glove with Tanja Schultz.

Amma said the failure rate was 11 per cent, which dropped to 3 percent if the glove was modified to an individual’s handwriting style.

The researchers hope to use the money from the Google Faculty Research Award to refine their glove and make it more comfortable.

Amma said he could see the glove being downsized into an armband or even become directly integrated into a smart phone, which would then be waved through the air as if it were a pencil.//DPA