Check this out! By simply using existing microphones found on practically all laptops, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a way to emulate screen pointers based on puffs of air instead of the mouse. While they could be used for ‘fancy’ applications like blowing out virtual birthday cakes (as the video suggests at the end), this could also very well be leveraged for people with disabilities such as paraplegics.
Great potential achieved with easily-available and cheap execution – I hope this can really be developed into a comprehensive, easy and accurate system of alternative input method. Just wondering – if we place a few microphones strategically around the screen, could it have a better calibration (think of GPS triangular positioning)? That could help make this much more precise and that much more effective.
