Physicists and engineers from Germany and Austria have developed very thin sensors that can interact with surrounding magnetic fields. By placing them on the skin, you can control virtual and real objects without touching them. Details of the work are published in the journal Science Advances.
Most existing applications of augmented and virtual reality track human movements using surveillance systems, that is, optically. The authors of the work propose instead to use magnetic field sensors that can be attached to the skin, for example, on the back of the hand.
“Our electronic skin tracks hand movements, for example, by changing its position in relation to the external magnetic field of a permanent magnet. This means that we can not only digitize them and broadcast them into the virtual world, but also affect objects in it,”said one of the authors of the work, an employee of the Center. Helmholtz Dresden-Rossendorf Canon Bermudez.
During the experiment, the scientists used a ring magnet and sensors they developed. They adjusted the control system in such a way that the brightness of the light bulb on the computer screen changed depending on the angle of the person's palm (with the sensor on it) to the magnet. It turned out that the modes of operation of the light bulb can be switched by gestures without touching the actual controls.
