Written by: Jonathan Hook, Stuart Taylor, Alex Butler, Nicolas Villar, Shahram Izadi
The researchers put together a set of sensors that measure ferrous fluctuation and return it as an input. This means that anything ferrous, like a ball bearing, ferro-fluid bladder, or a magnet, can be used as an input device or as a part of an input device. Input devices could be configured on the spot for multi-input unique uses. This works by having sensor coils configured in an array under the ferrous material to sense if anything has changed. This works in a 3D realm, somewhat like a Theremin.
The amazing part of this paper is that it shows how input devices can just be created on the spot, without cameras. Only ferrous materials can be used for this device, but adding a little piece of ferrous material to an input device wanted would allow for an unprecedented number of unique inputs for whatever program running. I dont see a crazy amount of future research in this other than 3D interpretation. Though this is really cool, only so many types of inputs are needed. This fills a gap where cameras cant be used, but otherwise, I see camera interpretation with depth perception as a much better avenue than this.
I thought the multitude of possible input devices was pretty interesting as well, and the fact that only ferrous materials could be used didn't really limit the capability of this device. I liked the possible applications that they could foresee with a device like this such as sculpting, and I think it would be interesting to see if they come up with any other uses for a device like this.
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