Postcard from the Future: Give me your digits Red Herring ,  October 4, 2001 By Scott Tyler Shafer By now most people realize how futile sending email on a cell phone is, or how maddening it is to enter names into a cell phone address book. In fact, almost all input functions on a cell phone are aggravatingly painstaking. Alec Matusis believes he has the perfect solution. Mr. Matusis, a postdoctorate fellow at Stanford University, has come up with an idea that assigns functions or actions to all ten human fingers. Each finger, when placed on a key equipped with off-the-shelf silicon sensors, will elicit a different response than any other finger. Using Mr. Matusis's proprietary set of software algorithms, the silicon sensors under each key will recognize the difference between all the digits on the human hand. So, for example, the technology could distinguish between thumbs and index fingers (it doesn't recognize individuals' prints, just the general shape of each finger). Through his year-old startup, MultiDigit, Mr. Matusis hopes to license the patent-pending technology to cell phone manufacturers. However, convincing them to build in this technology won't be easy -- especially when other startups have a head start. A bunch of startups are vying to get their technology in cell phones too, including OTM Technologies (see "Postcard from the Future: The write stuff"), which has developed a laser pen that solves the typing issue. Other startups are rumored to be working on holographic keyboards. But even if Mr. Matusis's technology is skipped over for cell phones, it does have other applications. THE FIVE-FINGER PRAYER The technology does seem best suited for typing on a cell phone, though. With MultiDigit's technology, users will only have to hit a key once for any given letter. For example, instead of having to push the number 7 on the dial pad four times to get the letter S, users can now use only one finger. Touching 7 with the thumb would type the letter P, the index finger would type the letter Q, the middle finger the letter R, and the ring finger would type the letter S. But convincing the short list of cell phone makers, including Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY), NeoPoint, and Motorola (NYSE: MOT), to add off-the-shelf sensors to every button is a stretch. At a cost of about $1 per sensor, it seems unlikely the phone manufacturers would implement this technology anytime soon. THE MIDAS TOUCH This MultiDigit seems to know. It has been quick to file a second patent that covers the use of the idea across a broad range of industries, including gaming, military, and aviation. As a replacement for the touch pads and buttons found on a laptop, the technology would eliminate the need for the two or three buttons commonly found adjacent to the touch pads on most laptop PCs. Instead, different fingers would invoke different functions currently controlled by buttons -- selecting, double-clicking, and so on. Another use of the technology would be for video game controllers. Instead of placing multiple buttons on a controller (Sony's (NYSE: SNE) controller for the PlayStation 2 has eight buttons, not even counting the four direction buttons and the start and select buttons), a single button or a few buttons could be used for all the functions, with each finger denoting a particular action. Mr. Matusis hints at the possibility the company may make its own gaming controller. This, of course, would be a much more capital-intensive undertaking than licensing a piece of intellectual property. To date the startup has received $50,000 in venture capital funding. The money came from Fast Angels Ventures, a venture firm created by the former CEO of Beyond.com, Mark Breier, who sits on the MultiDigit board. (Yes, that's the very man who gained notoriety for doing a live CNBC interview in his boxer shorts, to play off the company's television advertising campaign that featured a nude man ordering products from his home.) In theory, Mr. Matusis's idea is great. However, until it is adopted, it will remain just another great idea.