Importance

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Abstract

A system for determining and indicating the position of a finger removes the requirement for a conventional keyboard when providing information to a processor. Various embodiments of the present invention include combinations of ultrasonic, electromagnetic, and optical transducers and devices mounted on various locations of a user's hands and fingers. A character grid, or template, is also included to allow a user to select characters on the grid. The location of a particular finger is used to determine which keyboard character and/or control character on the character grid is being selected. A pair of glove like devices mounted on a user's hands have transducers mounted on the fingers. These transducers include piezoelectric film ultrasonic transducers. The transducers may be mounted on the fingertips of the user, on around the finger like a ring. Because the position of each finger is determined by the system, the character grid is not required to supply this information to the processor. Thus, the character grid may be made of any material capable of visually depicting keyboard type characters, such as plastic or paper. This character grid may be rolled or folded when not in use.

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First Claim