Ever wonder what happened to Michael Jackson's other glove?
Have you run out of room on your desk for a mouse? And what
do those two questions have to do with each other?
A Palo Alto company called VPL Research has introduced a
new input device they call the Z Glove. The Z Glove is a
close-fitting glove, as the name implies, with an attached
cable and two small ultrasonic transmitters. Small
receivers sit on the computer itself. The ultrasonics allow
the computer to track the glove as it moves through all
three dimensions, and the cable is hooked to sensors that
can tell when each finger is clenched.
The Z Glove may sound frivolous, at first; it is not. The
combination of tilt, grasp, and motion detection raises at
least the possibility that using the Z Glove will be faster
and easier than a mouse, joystick or trackball.
If you're familiar with mechanical Waldos for hazardous or
delicate material, you've pretty much gotten the idea
behind the Z Glove.
VPL packages the Z Glove with a proprietary visual language
called Grasp, which was featured on the cover of the
September 1984 issue of Scientific American magazine. With
the proper programming, the Z Glove can differentiate
gestures and perform different tasks based on those
gestures. Programming is performed with the glove itself.
If nothing else, the Z Glove and Grasp would let you to
conduct a symphony, play air guitar, or learn to juggle.
VPL was only showing a Commodore 64/128 version of the Z
Glove, but Chairman Jason Lanier said an IBM PC version was
in the offing. The glove is available in three sizes, and
yes -- they're made for both lefties and righties.