Design student creates G.A.U.N.T.L.E.T. glove that allows single handed typing (w/ Video)

(Phys.org) -- Jiake Liu, co-founder of Kabob.it has been demonstrating his G.A.U.N.T.L.E.T. glove at this year’s TechCrunch meetup in Atlanta. The name of the glove is an acronym meant to describe both its function and looks. It has metallic letters affixed to parts of the front of the fingers and another metal piece on the thumb that allows for connections to be made when pressing the thumb against the letters, effectively allowing a person to use the glove as a Bluetooth enabled wireless keyboard that works with just one hand.

The keyboard/glove is just one of many devices currently under development by researchers around the world to respond to the difficulties users have faced when trying to type on small smartphone screens or even on iPads. Though there are several Bluetooth enabled standard keyboards available for purchase, using them requires that they be toted around, a bulky proposition to be sure. Thus the search is on to find a way to allow users to type on their handheld devices in a reasonably elegant way.

Liu told John Biggs of TechCrunch that he came up with the idea for his glove while still attending the University of Alabama in Huntsville as a senior design project after being inspired by some of the technology in such movies as Minority Report and has been tinkering with the idea ever since. He’s now a co-partner of Kabob.it a company that makes smart menus for people with food allergies to help them figure out which foods in restaurants are safe to eat. That venture has allowed him the funds to pursue the glove technology that he believes some people are looking for.
The letters on the glove are arranged so that the most used letters are the easiest to reach; it also has an Enter key, spacebar and other function keys that allow the wearer to switch between keymaps, e.g. letters, numbers or special characters. It also has an accelerometer to allow for adjusting controls.

The glove is not yet ready to be sold to consumers as Liu believes there is more work to be done to improve both the typing functionality and the overall look of the gloves, which clearly needs some work as it does still look like a work in progress.

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