VIDEO: Skinput Uses Your Body as a Touchscreen

Palm Tetris, anyone?

Microsoft recently showed off a muscle-controlled interface that it was developing with the help of engineers at the University of Washington and the University of Toronto. Now they've teamed up with Carnegie Mellon to develop Skinput; a technology that turns your skin into an input device.

Microsoft describes Skinput as a bio-acoustic sensing technique that allows the body to be used as an input surface. Redmond developed a special armband that is worn on the bicep of the user and senses impact or pressure on the skin. It also measures the acoustic signals created by that impact. Variations in bone density, size and mass as well as the different acoustics created by soft tissues and joints mean different locations are acoustically distinct. Microsoft's software listens for impacts on the skin and classifies each one.

Microsoft demonstrates a number of uses for using your skin as a controller; playing Tetris using your hands as a control pad or controlling your iPod using taps to your fingers. The team also incorporated a pico projector into the armband, meaning virtual 'buttons' can be beamed onto the user's forearm or hands.

Check out the video below to see the technology in action.