BiTipText enables text entry across two index finger-worn keyboards

Typing with your thumbs on a smartphone has become an everyday activity for many, but what if you could enter text by simply tapping on your index fingers? With BiTipText, that may soon be a reality. 

The researchers’ prototype consists of an interactive skin overlay made out of flexible PCB material, allowing an Arduino Uno and MPR121 sensor chip to read capacitive signals from both digits. 

In testing, users were able to enter text at over 23 WPM, with a 0.03% uncorrected error rate. Notably, the two-handed implementation means that software can determine not only the position of presses, but the sequence of left/right inputs to help with word interpretation.

More details on the bimanual text input method can be found in the team’s paper here.