A new motion sensor glove device is being designed to recognize pen strokes made in thin air, registering them as text. While it still needs accuracy improvement, according to developers, it’s an exciting step in the forward direction for motion sensor technology. A prototype glove being designed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany will recognize pen strokes made in the air, registering the strokes as actual text.

“A team at the Cognitive Systems lab put together inertial sensors, an accelerometer and a gyroscope on a knit glove. The retooled mitt recognizes letter and words and even sentences as its wearer draws them in the air,” explains Technology Review.

And the glove is smart. It won’t attempt to recognize every movement, according to the article. It won’t, for instance, try to make letters out of a wave to a friend or the stir of a pot.

“Christopher Amma and the developers of the glove have set up the system to pay particular attention to alphabet-like patterns among the arm movements it is continuously tracking,” notes the article.

The glove’s system is designed to recognize more than 8,000 words. “There’s room for improvement in how well the glove recognizes letters and words, the authors admit in their paper describing the glove. But, they claim, it’s a healthy first step towards a gesture sensor that’s built to pick out certain kinds of movements — sequences of alphabets in this case — over others.”