Surgeons with shaky hands? I don’t want to even think about it, but it seems that there is research going on to develop handheld systems capable of detecting and reacting against natural levels of tremor.
Today’s invention is a much cruder version of this type of thing. Ordinarily, using eg an iPhone with its accelerometers on board wouldn’t be nearly accurate enough to analyse the dynamics in realtime of any manual task.
Imagine however a hairdresser attempting to recreate Mrs Miggins’ favourite style (or anybody executing a repetitive manual task -like shaving).
The movements made when performing a cut with which the customer was happy could be stored aboard the phone. This information could be accessed again later by another stylist. The chances of recreating the right cut would be small but for the fact that the iPhone can give very rapid instructions, via eg arrows on its screen, about where the trimmers should be moving in the next instant.
This visual feedback could make all the difference in terms of precision and an iPhone-like device could be easily attached to a variety of tools -opening up a trade in guidance programs stored by experts.
