Data gloves


The movie:

	5DT data glove. Picture courtesy of Fifth Dimension Technologies.

Our hero Tom Cruise dons a pair of these and waves his hands about to interface with the computer like a mad conductor at a speed freak symphony, instead of using keyboards and mice. Also, trackballs seem to be in vogue.

The reality:
There are several companies making data gloves. We found one called Fifth Dimension Technologies (5DT) which makes the US$495 wireless 5DT Data Glove 5-W (right handed; lefties pay US$100 more). It contains sensors in the fingers and thumbs so that you can use it a mouse or joystick substitute, and it works with Windows and Linux. We can't vouch for how well it works and sadly, it still can't replace a keyboard.

You can try something like the virtual keyboard from Virtual Devices. It projects an image of a keyboard on a flat surface and you type on this image. It's being sold as a PDA accessory.


Faking it:
Buy a pair of black rubber gloves from the hardware store, brush on cable-like lines on them with florescent paint. Wave your hands in the air and try to look like Tom Cruise nailing down the location of a perp. Make sure you are alone when you do this.

Intro

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Maglev vehicles

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In-ear phones

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Data gloves

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Holo storage

Holographic storage