Finger-Nose Stylus for Touch Screens (2011)

(variationsonnormal.com)

44 points | by downboots 8 days ago ago

21 comments

  • rozab 3 days ago ago

    Since smartphones became too large to reliably use with one hand, I've been an avid nose user. It helps to naturally possess a pointed proboscis not unlike the one pictured.

    I wonder if the clever interaction designers at Google had this in mind when they put a bunch of key gestures right at the top edge of the device?

  • emptybits 3 days ago ago

    Looks promising. Does it support multi-snout gestures and standard boop-boop protocols?

  • EvanAnderson 3 days ago ago

    I find that my nose is only really good for scrolling. Having better accuracy for nose pointing would make it more useful, but I think I'll stick to using it au natural vs. this stylus.

    I absolutely have scrolled my phone w/ my nose before. It was never necessary back when phones were a reasonable size to use one-handed. Now that every phone is a tablet-sized monstrosity I resort to nose-scrolling in the few-and-far-between times when I'm forced to use my phone one-handed.

  • gnabgib 3 days ago ago

    (2011) Certainly first submitted then https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2505960

  • delichon 3 days ago ago

    Seems like this could now be done without the prosthetic, just with the selfie camera and facial recognition. Point where your nose is pointing and double blink to tap. Tongue gestures to scroll, maybe.

    • xg15 3 days ago ago

      No one said your user can't be a lizard.

  • alde 2 days ago ago

    Nice. I have normal winter gloves without the special “touchscreen” coating, so in freezing temps I became proficient with using my nose to unblock and answer calls on my iphone.

  • dhosek 3 days ago ago

    There was (maybe still is?) a handicapped artist working the Santa Monica promenade who created his work on an iPhone. It’s been a while, but I think he clutched a stylus in his teeth to do the drawing. As I recall he either had no arms or severely shortened arms, but again it’s been a long time and I never took a picture because that would have felt exploitative.

  • petermcneeley 3 days ago ago

    A must have for those not Cyrano de Bergerac.

  • analog31 3 days ago ago

    In my younger days I had a summer job working on adaptive technology for severely impaired children. Even pre-computer era, a pointer on a headband and a chart of words was used by some kids to communicate. We made a digital thing with a touch pad, and the head pointer was used with it too.

  • devsda 3 days ago ago

    My naive over engineered retro kind of solution would be

    1. Add a pointer mode into the os

    2. Build touchpad/trackball type sensor tracking gestures using non capacitive sensors probably at the nav bar level and on the bottom edges or just the right edge(sorry left handed folks)

  • makeitdouble 3 days ago ago

    Funny thing is no voice assistant seem to help clicking a specific onscreen button.

    • 3 days ago ago
      [deleted]
  • xg15 3 days ago ago

    It's good, though a bit too on the nose for my taste.

  • nneonneo 3 days ago ago

    See also the DATANOSE, published in 1991 (in an actual ACM conference, no less): https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~hudson/datanose/uist91_henry_datanos...

  • altairprime 3 days ago ago

    I do this with my nose (unassisted) while I'm washing dishes with the phone on the above-sink mount. Handy for clearing notifications. This tool would help.

  • turtleyacht 8 days ago ago

    This helps raise the head somewhat. Arms may still tire.

  • fuzzy_lumpkins 3 days ago ago

    honestly with a solid adjustable arm for the side of the tub, id absolutely do this

  • 3 days ago ago
    [deleted]