Glove input interface with switches on fingertips

This paper describes an input interface that needs no keypad as seen on small-sized portable equipment such as portable game machines. Firstly in our proposed method, ON/OFF switches are provided on user's ten fingertips of both hands. Next, each of these fingertips is provided with one of control signals that work as binary number and so on. In addition, the combination of characters onto those fingertips is kept changeable by the user. To verify the proposal, a prototype was created, and evaluation was conducted to see whether it is effective as a user interface for data entry. This method has a feature that the needed characters can be entered if the user press his/her fingertips to any part of the user's body, for example, without needing any specific key pad on the surface of a small-sized portable terminal.