COEUR d'ALENE - A robotics professor from Tokyo City University wants to develop a faster way to type and eventually take a crack at the world record.

"The main point is to be fast," said Yoshikazu "Yoshi" Kanamiya, who is on sabbatical from TCU to help develop a medical robotics program at the University of Idaho in Coeur d'Alene.

"If you want to make it fast, you have to use subtle motion," Yoshi said, explaining how he came up with the idea to use a thumb and two fingers to type.

Yoshi wants to use the same sensor glove technology that is used in the gaming industry to get started. He wants to imbed sensors into two finger sleeves that fit over the index and middle fingers.

Those sensors would connect to a very small processor and battery on the back of the hand, and use Bluetooth technology to wirelessly transmit what he types to any sort of computer device.

The finger sleeves will have certain touch points that will recognize swipe technology that will be incorporated into the software. The sensors will also be pressure sensitive, so many characters can be generated with the limited number of touch points.

It will be three dimensional, Yoshi said.

"Sort of like Morse Code blended with swiping and the amount of pressure you use," he said, adding they will be using code to simplify things further.

Clayton Cardarelli, who manages IC:Code for the Innovation Collective in Coeur d'Alene, said it will be like texting without the phone.

Users will type out text using their thumb on the side of the finger sleeves.

Cardarelli is helping Yoshi recruit the talent he will need to launch the project in Coeur d'Alene. They pitched the concept to a group of software developers who attended an IC:Code meeting Monday night.

"We want to make a team to patent the technology," Cardarelli said, adding he probably won't be on the team himself. "I would like to be smart enough to work on the project, but that is not likely to happen."

The first thing Yoshi needs to do is to confirm that the concept is possible, and then he hopes to build a prototype before his sabbatical is over at the end of June.

Yoshi will return to Japan in July, but if all goes well, the team will continue developing the project through IC:Labs in Coeur d'Alene.

Yoshi, who has a son in Coeur d'Alene, said he will continue to collaborate on the project until it is finished.

He still has to work out the patent details with Tokyo City University and how that will work with the development team.

Matthew Gencarella, who is developing a new software app, said IC:Labs is great place to launch technology-related projects.

He said it has really helped to incubate his business and put him in touch with the experts he needs to develop his app concept.

Yoshi said once this story is published, he will have six months to begin the patent process and he expects the completion of the project will take at least a year.