The Idea

The main idea was to develop a wearable device, which increases the human senses. The concept "MH1" deals with the process of measuring objects from a certain distance. A simple finger gesture is enough to take the measurement. By focussing the object between the thumb and index finger, the device detects its dimensions.

Human amplifier

Sensors close to the human body can increase the human senses by recording constantly data. Correlations are able to be detected by comparing the informations of the sensors, which would not be able to recognize by natural human senses. Modern smart helpers for blind people already try to replace the visual sense and the associated orientation by using distance sensors, similar to the echolocation of bats. We tried to explore which datas of an object are determinable over distance, using an Arduino and different distance sensors.

Basic principle

Painters and drawers use a pencil to estimate and transfer lengths onto paper true to scale. Thereby they hold the pencil with their stretched arm and use their thumb and the tip of the pencil to locate the object. Afterwards this length is applied to the drawing. This principle and the usage of sensors combined formed the foundation of our final concept. In the next step we tried to apply the process of measuring to a intuitive gesture. The human hand is becoming a measuring tool itself.

Prototype

Based on a number of pre-prototypes we developed the final prototype. It consists of a glove, a mount for the sensors and the electronic part. A integrated display in the glove shows the measured values. The prototype is able to measure objects up to 40m away from the user. On 5m distance the deviation is about 4cm.

Future concept: Woodworker

Woodworkers could benefit from our concept, because at the moment they measure the height of trees with the "stick-method". In doing so they have to measure the distance to the tree and then uses a stick to aim on the height of the tree. On the basis of these value, the worker calculated the approximate height with the intercept theorems. With a work glove which is equipped with our concept, the woodworker could also measure the diameter beside the height of the tree and calculate how much wood he generates by cutting the tree. Therefore processes could be optimized while maintaining the human in the center. The focus in this future concept is on sturdiness and error prevention.

Future concept: Construction engineer

The construction site workplace is another professional field which could be improved with our concept. A ring has all the miniaturized sensors and a mobile application which stores and visualizes all the captured values. When attending a project the user takes a photo of the desired location and selects a measurement method from the toolbox. Then he marks the object being measured and uses the ring on his thumb to measure the object. The value is directly send to the app and visualized next to the marked object on the photo. The prototype of this app was prototyped using framer.js and breakout.js to communicate with the Arduino. The focus on this occasion laid on the approximate measurements of objects which are difficult to access.