Innovation of the week: Turn your skin into a touchscreen

"One of the biggest challenges with smartwatches is trying to navigate through apps on a relatively tiny screen," said Ben Popper at The Verge. To solve that problem, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a technology that turns the skin on your arm and hand into an extension of the smartwatch's touch screen. The system, known as SkinTrack, combines a signal-emitting ring worn on the finger that communicates with a sensing band attached to the watch.

"Using your skin as a canvas," you can control the smartwatch by swiping and tapping on your wrist as if it were part of the device. The system also allows for "really cool" shortcuts and key commands across your whole arm, like opening Twitter with a tap on the elbow, or opening the news app by tracing an N on your forearm.

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