The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘fingers’

Anyone remember Neonode? Apparently we do , but not very well. Anyway, these guys are back with a range of touchscreen panels called zForce

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zForce touchscreens from Neonode

Another year, another release of iLife. This time, though, with full iPad support.

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iWork 2010 announced, will support iPad’s multi-touch controls (and your regular Mac, too)

This eight minute video should answer any remaining questions you have about the iPad .

Here is the original:
The iPad Video Demo

Three Words: Garbage… Pail… Kids How did we miss this laser-scanning super robot vacuum? The “Potato Chip Hand” lets you eat chips, protects your fingers from getting greasy (video) Via Sony’s bio-battery: RC cars can now be powered by sugary drinks Conan O’Brien, NBC reach deal: Conan leaves Tonight Show with $45 million, can start a new show later this year

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Daily Crunch: New Amusement Edition

You know people are bored when they’re more interested in the “mock” “future” “desingerish” “WTF” device than the actual laptops.

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Can’t read my, can’t read my… ASUS Waveface

My first reaction – when I saw today on Thanko’s web site that the notoriously silly gadget maker from Tokyo is selling USB-powered gloves with built-in heaters [JP] – was: Who actually buys this kind of stuff? I mean Thanko is a real company, they have brick-and-mortar stores in Tokyo (two of them), they have employees etc. But they have been surviving for years now, even though they closed their English online store last month.

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USB-powered gloves that keep your fingers warm (but why?)

And suddenly I wish I had a garage. The Chamberlain Fingerprint Keyless Entry system for garage doors is selling at HomeDepot.com for $18 (down from $68) until the end of the month. According to the product description: The fingerprint keyless entry incorporates the latest biometric technology in providing access to your garage door.

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CrunchDeals: Fingerprint garage door opener for $18

A group of researchers in France just recommended that we all limit our exposure to wireless devices, including mobile phones, Wi-Fi, and microwaves, because we really don’t understand how prolonged exposure to them can affect us. That’s particularly true with mobile phones, since they’ve really only been around for, what, 10 years? (Obviously there were available for longer than that, but Joe Public didn’t buy his first phone till a little bit later.) You can’t categorically say, based on 10 years of sometimes spotty data, that “phones are bad!” or “phones are good!” We simply don’t know

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French health agency: Try to limit your exposure to mobile phones if only because we don’t have enough data to say otherwise

Hopefully you just read Michael’s post about Why Desktop Touch Screens Don’t Really Work Well For Humans. The answer is so simple that a lot of people overlook it: No one wants to hold their hands at monitor-level all the time, you’d get tired very quickly. If you’re looking for a quick answer as to why many touch screens like the TouchSmart line haven’t seen success in the past, that’d be it. But that’s not good enough. We need a solution, because as much as some people would like to hold on to the past, we’re not going to be using a keyboard and mouse forever to interact with computers.

Certainly, having a touch screen computer that sits at an angle like an architect’s desk is one solution. The issue there is that you need the screen to be big enough so that your hands don’t completely obstruct what you’re doing. Hopefully Microsoft will unveil some version of the Surface that works like that. But another potential solution comes by way of a brilliant concept video for something called 10/GUI.

If you haven’t seen this demo before, you should watch it (below). It brings up some key issues surrounding the future of touch input from both a hardware and software perspective. 10/GUI’s solution is to create a multi-touch pad that lays on your desk in the area that a keyboard or mouse would. You then use this pad to interact with the monitor in front of you, just as you would with the more traditional methods of input.

The key difference is that rather than have one cursor on the screen, you potentially have ten (one for each finger). While all your fingers could be resting on the screen, a “click” would not occur until you applied pressure from one or many of your fingers. The result is pretty cool — manipulating the user interface in a way not completely unlike the computer interaction in Minority Report (which is still my ultimate dream), though not three dimensional, of course.

But 10/GUI realizes that using this touch technology still may not be ideal for manipulating current computer operating systems. Specifically, the idea of the window-based interface becomes less ideal as you add more and more windows. 10/GUI’s solution is something called Con10uum, which is basically a linear way to organize windows. When matched with some of the multi-touch gestures, the system seems to make some sense.

Of course, then you get into a whole different game. Companies are already scooping up patents on different multi-touch gestures left and right. For example, here are some of the ones that BumpTop has for its system. Apple has others. Microsoft undoubtedly has some of its own too. It’s beyond ridiculous that you can patent a gesture, and this could lead to real issues in the future if multi-touch computing does take off. Nevertheless, that’s where we are.

Again, 10/GUI is just a concept created by R. Clayton Miller. You can read more about it here.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

[thanks Basti and Daniel]

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Hewlett Packard refreshed their TouchSmart line of computers today. If you’re not familiar with these, imagine an iMac all in one computer that has a touch screen, and you’re most of the way there.

I really like the TouchSmart line, and use a second generation machine as my main Windows test computer. The touch interface is done via infrared, which is a very cost effective way of creating a touch interface on a large screen. Microsoft, in fact, uses it in their experimental TouchWall product that can make a touch screen of virtually any size wall (more TouchWall footage).

Overall I give the TouchSmart top marks – the only drawback is that it is inexplicably heavy at something like 60 lbs., and no one seems to know why. But since it sits on your desk, it’s not like you’re lifting it very often, so it doesn’t really matter.

But the machine is still all wrong. Anyone who has used one for a long time will tell you that they quickly revert to using the keyboard and mouse. And it isn’t because of the software or touch technology – both are fine.

The problem is that you get tired keeping your hands up and on the screen for a long period of time. Touch experts I’ve spoken with say it’s because your hands are above your heart, which isn’t comfortable for very long.

You don’t get this problem with Microsoft’s Surface computer, which is a low table in front of you. And the TouchSmart layout tends to work well in the kitchen, where you’re standing at a counter with the computer at a lower level.

But for the desktop, it just doesn’t work.

So what does the future of desktop touch computing look like?

Most experts I’ve spoken with agree that the problem was actually solved centuries ago. The proper layout for a desktop touch screen machine is the architect’s desk – a slightly inclined desktop that is a touch screen for your computer. With the advances in touch technology most users won’t need any peripheral input device (keyboard, mouse, etc.) to be productive on inclined desktop touch screen machine. The desk should also be somewhat shorter than a normal desk – the bottom of the screen should basically be on your lap, and you would be mostly looking down on the machine.

If I were HP, I’d design a version of the TouchSmart that inclined way down to a 25 degree or so angle. My guess is people would love it. Until, of course, they realized the viewing angle for the LCD screen was so poor that the screen was unreadable. But that too can be fixed.

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