It’s 20 degrees out and your smartphone rings. If you want to answer it but don’t want to take off your toasty warm gloves, we have a few hacks to help.
The reason your gloves prevent you from using your touchscreen is that they block the electric charge transmitted via the moisture in your fingertips, explains Jacob Wobbrock, a professor at the University of Washington’s Information School. The capacitive touchscreen — the lingo for this charge-sensitive feature — needs that moisture so it can detect exactly where your finger is on the screen.
But when you have gloves on, Wobbrock told The Huffington Post, you can trick your phone into thinking it’s being touched by fingertips. All you need is a bit of moisture and some contact.
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But Wobbrock says manufacturers and developers are looking into ways to improve the experience of using phones in extreme temperatures.
Progress is already being made to allow users to answer their phones via voice commands or pre-approved gestures. Wobbrock says more advanced gestures will provide a way for users to get around “situational impairments” — cold weather, heat or physical disabilities — that hinder smartphone use. iPhones, for example, already allow users to shake their phones in order to undo actions.
For now, though, keep your meat stick handy.
