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Final Product
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Debugging problems
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Soldering and Assembly
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Prototyping and Testing
Inspiration
Wearable technology and the idea of putting a keyboard on a glove. We wanted a way to type without carrying a keyboard or pulling out a phone.
What it does
A glove that lets you type anywhere, anytime. Each finger has a button, and pressing different button combos types the letters A to Z. Pressing all five at once makes a space. The text shows up live on a web page that the glove makes itself, and you can copy it into a Google Doc. No internet or app needed.
How we built it
- Hardware: an ESP32 board with five push buttons, one on each finger of a glove.
- Typing with combos: each finger counts as a number (thumb = 1, index = 2, middle = 4, ring = 8, pinky = 16). Add up the buttons you press and that number is the letter's place in the alphabet. For example, thumb + middle = 1 + 4 = 5 = E. Five buttons give us $2^5 - 1 = 31$ combos, enough for every letter and a space.
- Hold timer: a combo only counts after it's held for about a third of a second, so fingers landing at slightly different times don't type the wrong letter.
- Display: the ESP32 makes its own Wi-Fi network and runs a small web page that shows the text, with Copy, Backspace, and Clear buttons. We wrote it in C++ with the Arduino framework.
Challenges we ran into
- The wrong accelerometer: the one we had wasn't the chip we expected, so we had to scan for its address and write our own code for it.
- Software setup: library errors, Git problems, and config issues took a lot of time.
- Getting text into a document: we tried a few ways before choosing the web page, since it works on any device.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- A working wearable keyboard made from cheap parts
- Typing the whole alphabet and spaces with only five buttons
- It needs no internet, no app, and no extra software
What we learned
- How I2C devices work and how to find their address
- How to read buttons reliably with timing
- How to run a Wi-Fi network and web page on a microcontroller
- Test each part on its own before putting everything together
What's next for Hand Keyboard Glove
- Typing directly into any device over Bluetooth, with no copy and paste
- Using the accelerometer for numbers, punctuation, and backspace
- Rearranging the combos so common letters like E, T, and A take the fewest presses
- A battery and smaller board so it's comfortable to wear
Built With
- battery
- button
- c++
- cable
- esp32
- garden
- glove
- jump
- module
- passionate
- thin
