SBIR Phase I: Overcoming interaction barriers in augmented reality via wearable multimodal sensing

Award ID: 2322424

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project enables people to intuitively interact with augmented reality technologies. Currently, augmented reality input modalities can be extremely unreliable, making it nearly impossible to use traditional mouse-and-keyboard applications on these devices. The company is proposing a device that may overcome this interaction barrier by allowing augmented reality manufacturers the ability to make more complex and meaningful applications. The device will turn human hands into cursors, turn any surface into a touchscreen, and unlock new human-computer interactions. Using this device with augmented reality headsets is expected to prove advantageous for potential applications in education, medicine, defense, and manufacturing. The company is building an interface for augmented reality input, paving the way for a differentiated path to increasing augmented reality content. This technology could allow for rapid communication of information at a rate falling between that of typing on a computer and physically speaking, unlocking untapped productivity for users of augmented reality platforms. These outcomes will be met through the development of a reliable and functional wrist-worn, near-infrared sensor network that will improve the capture of input data. Unlike current devices, this technology is not hindered by the cameras' limited field of view or obstructions, or by the unreliability of other wearable input capture devices. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Alastair Monk