Before Jumping into the Optical setup I wanted to make sure I had a keyboardless way to type on a computer. Though speech to text is awesome I don't want to be in a bar or room of talking people and not be able to type. So I decided to build the KGlove. Basically, the KGlove is an input interface to a computer that is activated when you bend your fingers. It uses an Arduino and flex sensors. I am going to make it wireless and add in an accelerometer soon for the mouse. I made it so I can type characters using it and also play MIDI, like playing a piano without a piano, see the end of the video.
The way the text typing works is that each finger on the right hand represents a character in alphabetical order and each finger on the left hand goes to the next set of 5 letters.
So Right Thumb is 'a' and Right Index Finger is 'b'.
If I do Left Thumb and Right Thumb that is 'f', the sixth letter or Left Thumb and Right Index that is 'g'. Having the letters in order makes it really easy to learn. This only leaves me with 30 possible characters. However, by combining Left Finger combinations I should be able to achieve 3125 different possible characters(key presses). The hardest part is muscle control. Bend your middle finger, your ring finger wants to bend also. So controlling that movement and calibrating the sensors is important.
Code is all available Here
I am just learning to type with it so in the video sometimes it takes me a second to remember which finger combination is which letter. Also, sometimes I need to backspace. Yeah, I made sure I had backspace, haha.
Oh yeah at the end you can tell I am not a musician or pianist. hahaha.
