WAX9
The WAX9 is Bluetooth compatible multi-sensory platform. It boasts a 3-axis accelerometer, gyro and magnetometer as well as a temperature and barometric pressure sensor. The WAX9 was developed with a wide range of applications in mind ranging from digital interaction to biomechanics research.
The WAX9 sensor is based on an ultra-low power 16bit architecture using a PIC micro-controller. The firmware supports a serial based API (accessible over Bluetooth or USB) and transmitted data can be formatted in a variety of ASCII or binary encoded formats. The WAX9 API also supports sensitivity and sample rate configuration of each sensor stream leading to a fully application specific solution.
Manual text entry is becomes problematic when keyboard become small; classically on mobile devices. While some focus has been made to innovate around keyboard layout and design, Airwriting explores a completely new approach. Airwriting presents an automatic text recognition platform driven by signals gathered at the wrist (via a WAX9). This project was lead by Christoph Amma at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and since release has won multiple awards including the Google Faculty Award and Otto-Haxel Award. The project was also on display at CEBIT 2014.
Links
The WAX9 device is available from Open Movement open source [distributors] (Distributors).
Stein, S., et al. Combining Embedded Accelerometers with Computer Vision for Recognizing Food Preparation Activities. 2013 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. ACM.
Altavilla, Alessandro, Baptiste Caramiaux, and Atau Tanaka Towards Gestural Sonic Affordances. New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2013) pp. 61-64.
Godfrey A., et al. Postural control during standing balance as a biomarker for healthy ageing. 3rd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement.