Apple's AR motion controllers may detect fingers without covering hands

       Augmented reality and virtual reality present numerous interaction challenges, in part because users may not be able to see the buttons to press in the real world if their view is blocked. Current systems rely on handheld controllers with a selection of buttons and sensors to detect the position of the user's hands and, in some cases, even fingers. There have also been attempts to use gloves to enable hand tracking, freeing up the hands to grab and interact with other things.

　　Even gloves present their own problems, as they can still cover the user's entire hand, reducing the sense of touch at the fingertips. Since such finger detection systems usually rely on some kind of temporary placement of the fingers themselves, this makes designing a system that accomplishes the task quite tricky.

　　In a patent granted to Apple by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday titled "Electronic device system with a controller," Apple attempts to address this problem with a more sophisticated hand-held controller concept. Apple's AR and VR systems could use wearable controllers with extensions to sense when a user's fingers press on a surface without covering the fingertips.

　　The patent proposes a number of different solutions, but they all seem to have the same result of keeping the fingers as unrestrained as possible. Each of these solutions allows for finger detection, but the general result is to keep the fingers free. The basic design seems to include a tubular body that is grasped by the thumb and fingers, with a ring section for the fingers to slide through, like a form of knuckleduster. The main differences in design are mainly related to the elements derived from the ring, in order to interact with the fingers.

　　Some designs suggest a sleeve that covers the sides and top of the finger, leaving the sensitive bottom open. Pinching the sides allows the mechanism to stay connected to the finger, allowing detection of finger movement. Others have proposed an extendable handle with onboard sensors to detect the reach of the finger without actually touching it. This also opens up the opportunity for sensors to detect when the user touches another surface, which can help aid interactivity.

　　The list of sensors used to detect fingers and external surfaces can include optical sensors, radio frequency sensors, acoustic sensors, 2D force sensors, and motion sensors. This is all on top of other typical sensors used in handheld controllers, which can range from radio-based communication with a host device to accelerometers and other positioning elements.

　　Apple files numerous patent applications every week, but while the existence of an application indicates an area of ​​interest for its research and development team, it does not guarantee that the idea will appear in a future product or service.