These concept smart glasses let you control your phone by scratching your nose

Using a phone or smartwatch when you’re supposed to be talking to someone has become an accepted rudeness in the 21st century. So, a group of researchers have a possible solution to this minor societal ill: prototype smart glasses that let you control a computer just by rubbing your nose. Yes, you can reject a call, pause a video, or skip a song, simply by scratching your schnoz.
                                               

They aren’t (sadly) available to buy right now, or we’d all be wandering the streets, pawing at our noses like coked-up advertising execs. The glasses were designed as an experiment by researchers from South Korea’s KAIST University, the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and Georgia Tech in the US, to create a way to “control a wearable computer without calling attention to the user in public.”

The specs work thanks to a trio of electrooculography (or EOG) sensors embedded in the bridge and nosepads of the frame, which measure the electric potential of the surrounding flesh. These types of sensors are usually used to record eye activity for doctors, but have also found their way into the film industry as a method of re-creating realistic eye movements in CGI.

The system — delightfully dubbed ItchyNose — could be used to minimize social awkwardness when using wearable computers, says researcher Hui-Shyong Yeo. He has in mind the sort of device that might be worn directly in front of the eyes. Indeed, Google Glass had a similar-ish control system, using swipes down the side of the frame as an input.