Wall Street Journal: Pourang Irani Part of Team That Invents a Smartwatch That Works With One Hand

October 24, 2016 —

The Wall Street Journal writes about how Pourang Irani, Professor of Computer Science and Canada Research Chair in Ubiquitous Analytics at the University of Manitoba, together with scientists at Dartmouth College and have developed technology that allows the wrist to be used like a joystick, enabling smartwatch users to control apps using a simple wrist gesture.

Smartwatch Video

The scientists call their approach WristWhirl. They have created a prototype that relies on a band equipped with a dozen infrared proximity sensors, a vibration sensor, and a cheap microcontroller board. The wrist-as-joystick functions are activated by a finger-pinch, which the prototype can detect. The same finger-pinch deactivates the joystick, enabling normal wrist movements without controlling the watch.