"ALGORITHMS: Thimble-like digitizer doubles as input device"

Digitizing three-dimensional objects today is a tedious process requiring the user to trace an object's outlines using a tethered stylus. And even after laboriously running the stylus over every nook and cranny, the user captures only the object's shape; its other properties cannot be determined. Now researchers with the Virtual Reality Lab of the State University of New York at Buffalo have created a thimble-like fingertip digitizer that not only eliminates the stylus but also captures the viscosity (hardness, homogeneity, texture) as well as the shape of an object. Further, the digitizer can double as a universal input device, allowing a machine to interpret a user's gestures.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192500742