New tech allows smartwatch to “sense” objects users touch

Most electrical devices emit small amounts of so called ''electromagnetic noise'', which our senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell cannot detect. 

With some hardware modification, which allows detection of the signals, researchers have created a smarter smartwatch that can sense exactly what one was holding.

The team, comprising researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research, modified a simple low-cost wearable radio to pick up those electromagnetic noise signals, and developed custom smartwatch software to distinguish the noise from one device to another.

The wearable device called EM-Sense can automatically sense when one was opening a door, operating a computer, or even brushing one's teeth.

According to commentators, the biggest benefit to this new technology was that it could make a smartwatch more than just a second screen for one's smartphone.

Imagine one was automatically starting a timer when one started brushing one's teeth, or reading emails and to-do list when one opened the door to one's office in the morning.

The device is especially useful while driving, as one's smartwatch would know when one's vehicle was running, and automatically limit the number of messages or notifications received so as to stay focused on the road.

An implementation of the technology would see the EMSense device installed into any smartwatch.

EMSense works by turning the body into a giant antenna as one touches objects it reads their otherwise invisible electromagnetic (EM) signals and ''sees'' what one touches, so to say.

Carnegie Mellon graduate student Gierad Laput says ''[Most devices] have EM signatures. But for passive objects like steel ladders - which are conductive - they pick up EM signals from their immediate environment, like fluorescent lights or power lines.

However, non-conductive objects like pens and plastic chairs are not capable of generating EM signals, Gizmodo reported.

This meant the system could recognise anything capable of carrying electricity, whether or not was something that one plugged in.

According to the researchers who thought of a few practical scenarios for it, the technology could help alerting users of their calendar events for the day while opening a door in the morning.