ClothFace: A Batteryless Glove-Integrated User Interface Solution based on Passive UHF RFID Technology

Due to their unique advantages, wearable user interface solutions have gained a lot of research and commercial interest. This paper introduces ClothFace technology by presenting a batteryless glove-integrated user interface. The solution is based on passive ultrahigh frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The first prototype of this solution was fabricated from copper tape to a normal cotton-based glove. The user interface on the glove consists of three antenna parts on three different fingers of the glove, each of which has an RFID microchip with a unique ID. Further, an additional antenna part is attached to the thumb of the glove. The antennas are initially separated from each other, and none of the microchips is readable for the RFID reader. When thumb antenna touches any of the three finger antennas, the touch creates an electrical connection, and the corresponding microchip can be detected by the RFID reader. In this study, the developed glove-integrated user interface was evaluated in an office environment by three test subjects, who all received 100 orders from a specific testing software. The average success rate in this first test was 98 %. These initial results are very encouraging, especially when considering that the glove-integrated user interface, being light, flexible, and cost-effective, promises versatile interesting applications in several fields.