A team of four students from the National University of Singapore students have come up with a pair of touch-screen sensitive gloves to help touch-screen phone owners use their phones in winter without having to remove their gloves.
The idea for ISGLOVES took root when two members of the team went abroad for student exchange programmes to Sweden last year.
After months of development, the innovation finally made its debut in Sweden last year, just in time for winter. Retailing at about S$100 a piece, 100 gloves were sold within three weeks.
Team leader, Charmain Tan explained that the idea came up when she had faced difficulty using her iPhone.
“I also saw one of my colleagues using her nose to touch the screen of her device. When I asked her about it, she told me that she was trying to unlock her phone,” said team member Fitzkhoon Liang.
Touch-screens rely on detecting the electrical charge in the fingertips. With this in mind, the team embedded conducting fibres in the glove. This allows users to access their devices with any part of their hand, be it fingers, palms or even knuckles.
“People are very fascinated that we could come up with such a thing. When we presented this solution, everybody said, ‘Finally, there’s a solution to this problem’,” said team member Cia Zhi Yun.
The team recently won an award for its innovation at DEMO Asia, one of the biggest start-up competitions in the region.
