SmarTouch Gloves For GPS Operation

I own a pair of touch gloves made by Head because I use an iPhone and iPad. I thought the gloves might be a gimmick, but I used them recently during a trip to the Grand Canyon and they worked great. The gloves were purchased at our local Costco.

To answer your question, yes I find it is easy to manipulate the touch screen of my Nuvi or my iDevices while wearing these gloves.

Not all screens are the same. Could be a waste of money for a unit that does not have a capacitive touch screen, which is what those (and other) gloves are designed for. I think most Garmin before the 3xxx line were all using resistive touch screens. Easiest way to tell; if you can use your finger nail on the screen, it's not a capacitive touch screen.

Gee, the gloves that were $40 at Verizon, $25 at Staples, are now $19.99 at Microcenter. That is still too expensive, but they are coming down in price!

http://www.microcenter.com/product/389333/Men%27s_L_SmarTouc...

The magic ingredient in most of these gloves is a conductive thread used in the fingertips.

You can find conductive thread at maker websites such as sparkfun.com and adafruit.com -- and in Silicon Valley, some craft stores (michael's) art starting to carry it as well.

Two varieties available, stainless steel, and silver. Of the two, I'm looking at silver, as silver oxide is still a good conductor.

A question I have still unanswered is what the conductive thread will do to the Nuvi- style resistive touchscreen; I'm worried it will scratch it up, as the Nuvi screen is a mylar layer with an anti-glare and supposedly scratch-resistant coating on the outside (and ITO, indium tin oxide, the resistive layer, on the inside).

But I think I'm going to find out -- that's what older units are for, test like this!

Drive safe, and watch out for the whackos on the road, and please don't be one!

What type of screen does the i-phone 4S have? I notice that I have trouble with it if I am wearing gloves. Have to take them off.

iPhones, and the multi-touch devices have what are called capacitive touch sensors.

The older style, single touch screens, such as the Nuvi and the old Palm Pilots (remember those?) use resistive touch sensors over the LCD screens, which are actually two layers separated by a gap; it's that thin somewhat flexible top layer that can cause problems, getting creased by a fingernail, or causing funky reflections.

In contrast, the capacitive sensor can be built into the glass front for the LCD, making it a lot tougher, and causing fewer problems with LCD intensity and clarity.

But to work, the capacitive sensor needs skin contact, which is blocked by most gloves.

As others have pointed out, there are various folks who make gloves made for use with such phones. The "magic ingredient" is a conductive thread, with either stainless steel or silver in it, going between the inside and the outside of the glove's fingertips.

And I wonder how the Nuvi display will look after being tapped repeatedly with metal, even if it is thread-sized...

Have a happy and safe New Year's -- please don't be one of the idiots we read about!

I used to think that ZAGG screen protectors would be unnecessary for GPS units, but maybe not such a bad idea after all!

http://www.zagg.com/invisibleshield/garmin-nuvi-350-cases-sc...

I have had a pair for awhile now but have not used it yet, sounds like time to test it.

Don't you think it is kind of silly to put thermally conductive material (metal) between your skin and the cold air? Kind of ruins the point of weaing gloves.

Speaking of coming down in price, I was at the Best Buy today at the Maul Of America. These same Isotoner Gloves were marked down on clearance to $9.99, but the clerk sold them to me for $6.99. I even asked about the price, but she said $6.99 is the clearance price! Sure, many people could care less this late in the season, but I use my gloves year after year until they are pretty much totally worn out. Usually, that only happens to my work gloves or gloves that I wear while horse back riding!

http://www.totes-isotoner.com/product/isotoner+mens+smartouc...

I bought some 'touch screen' gloves to use with my cell phone while geocaching in winter. First pair was very similar to the Isotoners in your post, and I paid around $30 at a sporting goods store. I think mine were North Face brand. They work really well. Unfortunately, the metallic thread tips tend to be a little delicate. I used them for some rough duty in the woods and the tips got torn up fairly quickly. If you don't plan on digging in log piles or climbing trees, they will probably wear OK for the average person.

I also bought some real cheapies on Amazon for around $6.50/pair. They were basic knit gloves with touch fingers. They work just as well as the expensive ones but aren't quite so thick or warm. I believe I used the search term "tech gloves" to get a bunch of hits on Amazon.

You do realize that you only need 'touch gloves' with devices that have a capacitive touch screen like most phones but not devices with resistive screens like our Garmins, right?

Really!!! Do we really need gloves to use our gadgets in cold weather?

Stuck outside in the rain one day, I quickly learned that wet fingers and/or wet iPhone screen equals no input.

I did see that one of the newer smartphones is advertising "wet finger touch"!

The thought of using silver for this is crazy, I don't care how little. How will the silver be recovered and recycled?

The metal in the tips will have negligible effect on heat transfer, it is only a few threads.

Carbon is a very good conductor, and has been used as static protection for decades. Find a glove or material that is carbon impregnated.

Perhaps the simplest and most effective it to cut the finger tips off the digits of the glove.

Sounds good. Only thing is I hate to wear gloves. I guess if your hands are cold all the time you might like them.

I'm in the Northeast and I don't wear glove unless it is in the single digits. And when I do wear gloves, they will be the big bulky kind to protect against single digit and below temperatures. Not a chance or even a consideration to use a touch device in those conditions.

Since I live in Minnesota, I don't think I will be cutting the tips off of my gloves!

There's a good one-line in there somewhere! Maybe: "1 to 5"?