"The last few years my arms have largely shaped my work setup. I used to struggle with severe pains and cramps in my lower arms and couldn't design unless I had my special equipment. Basically I assembled a device from a Manfrotto Table Top Tripod Kit 209, 492 Long, tripod adapter plate and an Apple Magic Trackpad and placed it in front of my 15 inch MacBook Pro. I then used the tip of my nose to draw and maneuver the mouse, while my arms were resting in front of me. Yes, it was pretty frustrating at times and yes, it looked ridiculous and yes, it took a long time to increase my precision and speed, but somehow I ended up becoming extremely efficient!"
- Interview on The Setup: https://usesthis.com/interviews/michelle.vandy/
This goes to show how slow human interface innovation is. Human hands are magnificent tools but she can use a computer (except for typing I guess) as well with her nose, as she did with 10 fingers.
I remember seeing somewhere that she's regained full use of her arms sometime in the last couple years and no longer uses that setup. Still pretty cool to see though.
Nose-tap seemed obvious, but I never thought of forehead-tap or chin-tap. (I dismiss the "usual" way ... covering the screen with my other hand.) I'll add those to my repertoire, thanks!
Oh I almost forgot, you might like my preferred way of dismissing Apple Watch / Android Wear: I call it the "Karate Chop". The surface area of the outer edge of your hand is enough to cover the screen :)
My favorite part is the guy who programmed his nose into his iPhone's fingerprint sensor. I wonder if it can really tell the difference between his nose and any other person's.
You can also use toes, and if you want to get more weird: you can also use your nipple ! Not only it can tell the difference between your and any other person's nipple, it can also tell the difference between your left and right nipples. Don't ask me how I know...
It's a submarine article [1] for Apple. It's not usually this clumsy done though where any common sense reader immediately sees through the ruse of only referencing the Apple devices and the omission of other smartwatches
> Mr. Desarnauts recently tried nose tapping himself for the first time in the shower when his wrist started to vibrate from an incoming phone call while he had shampoo in his hands. He sent the call to voice mail hands free.
This whole article smacks of solutions to problems these people paid to have. Why are you wearing a smart watch in the shower? What call or email is so important that it couldn't wait until you get out of the shower?
Yeah. From what I recall, sending a call to voicemail has always been hands-free. In fact, prior to 2015 you didn't even need to be near a device to do it!
Yes, but letting it ring out and go to mail on its own isn't very satisfying. Sometimes you want people to know that it was you that sent them to the mailbox after only two rings. It says you busy, but not so busy that you cannot tap your phone.
I've done pretty much that exact thing with my watch. I had just done a workout so needed a shower, didn't take the watch off, got a phone call and answered it. I shouldn't have answered it because it was impossible to talk in the shower.
To each his own, I suppose. I wouldn't wear a regular watch in the shower, so it's just habit to take it off. Apple also doesn't recommend exposing it to the shower / soap [1] but based on your experience it seems that might be to cover themselves just in case.
Better question: Do you really want Apple monitoring what you do in the shower?
Siri: I noticed you spent an extra five minutes shaving yesterday and suspect your razor is a little dull. We sold that little factoid to Braun. Now every website in the world will be filled with their razor ads. Please do not disappoint. Braun is an important customer, unlike you.
A world where data tracking people's behaviour is useful to those wanting to sell them products. Is it really all that speculative to suggest that an apple algorithm (or google) might correlate persons who suddenly take a few extra minutes shaving with persons who in the next week will buy some shaving products?
Apple is a supporter of individual privacy, not group privacy. They have and use lots of behavioural data, anonymized and sorted, but data nevertheless.
Apple have made a point that a lot of their learning is done on the device itself - stuff like the keyboard and Google Now-esque "if you leave for home now it will take X hours" never leave the device as a conscious privacy decision even though it results in a slightly less intelligent product.
Not at the moment, but it's coming. Also, it's rarely the manufacturers themselves that are selling the data, but applications installed/given access.
Google already can guess where I park my car and can provide me with relevant traffic data for my commute both to and from work without me having to ask for it.
With highly accurate GPS, and information about the user, you could probably guess what user's home layout looks like, and what they do in each room.
Got a heartbeat monitor on your wearable? Sleep in the same location every night? Haven't had an elevated heart rate in your bedroom for a month? Unmarried (because that's public record)? Time for ads targeted at lonely singles.
> Google already can guess where I park my car and can provide me with relevant traffic data for my commute both to and from work without me having to ask for it.
iOS 9 does that kind of stuff as well but when it was announced Apple made a point to emphasize that they've implemented it all on-device to protect privacy.
Selling ads is just not in Apple's DNA. Even iAds was a kind of a flop.
It's only because the UX is so terrible. I think the closest to fixing the UX on a smartwatch so far has been Samsung with its Gear S2. It has a circle bezel that rotates through everything. Very easy to use.
So the solution to fixing interacting with a smart watch when your hands are otherwise engaged is not to use another conductive piece of your body, but to instead turn a bezel with your hand?
"The last few years my arms have largely shaped my work setup. I used to struggle with severe pains and cramps in my lower arms and couldn't design unless I had my special equipment. Basically I assembled a device from a Manfrotto Table Top Tripod Kit 209, 492 Long, tripod adapter plate and an Apple Magic Trackpad and placed it in front of my 15 inch MacBook Pro. I then used the tip of my nose to draw and maneuver the mouse, while my arms were resting in front of me. Yes, it was pretty frustrating at times and yes, it looked ridiculous and yes, it took a long time to increase my precision and speed, but somehow I ended up becoming extremely efficient!" - Interview on The Setup: https://usesthis.com/interviews/michelle.vandy/