Hambone: A Bio-Acoustic Gesture Interface

Mobile input technologies can be bulky, obtrusive, or difficult to use while performing other tasks. In this paper, we present Hambone, a lightweight, unobtrusive system that affords quick access, subtlety, and multitasking capabilities for gesture-based mobile device interaction. Hambone uses two small piezoelectric sensors placed on either the wrist or ankle. When a user moves his hands or feet, the sounds generated by the movement travel to Hambone via bone conduction. Hambone then transmits the signals digitally to a mobile device or computer. The signals are recognized using hidden Markov models (HMMs) and are mapped to a set of commands controlling an application. In this paper, we present the hardware and software implementation of Hambone, a preliminary evaluation, and a discussion of future opportunities in bio-acoustic gesture-based interfaces.