Northwestern turns ordinary smartwatches into hand and gesture sensors with TransfHAR and electrode-based system
realkaranahuja · x · 2026-11-06
Northwestern Engineering professor Karan Ahuja's team unveiled two smartwatch-based systems, TransfHAR and an electrode-based watch, that sense what hands are doing without cameras or medical imaging:
- One system recognizes everyday activities from wrist and arm motion; the other uses electrodes on the back of the watch to pick up subtle gestures like a thumbs-up or clenched fist via muscle and tendon signals under the skin.
- Both systems can learn new arm movements on demand.
- Potential applications include bionic prosthetic control, patient and elder-care monitoring, personalized activity tracking, and simpler smartwatch interaction.
- Team: PhD students Aidan Bradshaw and Xuanyou Liu, MS student Novel Alam; results presented at academic venues.
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