Mobile future: Forget the handset, just use your palm

It’s the ultimate touchscreen – instead of tapping at your handset, you tap straight onto the palm of your hand.

At least this is the future in the eyes of researchers at the Hasso Plattner Institute at Potsdam University in Germany, as explained in an article by the New Scientist (read it here). It would be handy when your phone rings and you can’t find it – just tap your palm at the corresponding spot and start talking, using speakerphone.

You’d need to know exactly where each of the phone’s buttons were located to do this, but the scientists said this shouldn’t be a problem: “We found 68% of iPhone users can locate the majority of their home screen apps on their hand.” Sounds about right – even if we can’t quite explain this verbally, all the practice means we should be able to hone the muscle memory in no time.

The technology behind this would be similar to what is used in the video games that detect your motions – so that means using cameras to see where you are pressing on your palm, and not any kind of scary implant into your hand and finger. Although having said that, the technology would probably work better that way. It sounds a bit much, but then again, it would be sort of neat … ?