Shenzen New Degree Technology was one of the companies showing its stuff in the Eureka Park portion of CES 2013, and this China-based hardware startup had some impressive tech to show off related to touch input. Combining capacitive and resistive touch-based input with a means to make it work even on solid stainless steel surfaces, Shenzen New Degree hopes to pave the way for a wide range of new… → Read More
Sharp Japan announced [JP] the i3board PN-L702B for the Japanese market yesterday, a 70-inch electronic whiteboard targeted at businesses and schools. The device is essentially a 70-inch touchscreen (LCD) that comes with a Stylus pen and special software, enabling users to make notes or draw on the screen, scroll or change the size of objects by using gestures.
The whiteboard can be used to… → Read More
Do you miss the feeling of pressing physical buttons when you touch icons or letters on a smartphone touchscreen? Japan’s second largest mobile carrier KDDI is working on a display that recreates exactly that “clicking sensation” by combining vibration with a pressure sensor. → Read More
I am not really sure if this is awesome or unnecessary, but here we go: Japan’s University of Electro-Communications has developed a small touchscreen that sends tactile information through the display onto the palm of your hand. In other words, it’s supposed to make you “feel” what’s going on on the screen. → Read More
First Asahi Glass’ announcement from yesterday, now this: Toshiba Mobile unveiled a 7.0-inch LTPS TFT LCD panel with a capacitive multi-touch input function “integrated in the liquid crystal cell”. In other words, manufacturers won’t need to add a touch panel to the LCD, making the Toshiba device 57% thinner and 48% lighter than comparable screens of that size. → Read More
What’s almost as important as sturdy touchscreens? Thin touchscreens, and Tokyo-based Asahi Glass can now claim the bragging rights for having developed [press release in English, PDF] the world’s thinnest soda-lime glass substrate for touchscreens. In other words, we will soon be able to see thinner and lighter smartphones and tablets. → Read More
A research team at Osaka University has developed a new control interface for touchscreens that flexes the content that’s displayed when you move your finger over the screen. In the process, the content is “distorted” to make it possible to view (and zoom in on) a wider space on-screen, while at the same time keeping an eye on the original position you marked with your finger. → Read More
The Monster Touch is an auxiliary screen for people who, well, need an additional screen. In case of the Monster Touch the idea is there, the execution needs some work however. I’ve found some situations where the screen came in handy and I can imagine that for some users this screen would do the trick. → Read More
If you needed more proof that touchscreens are becoming ubiquitous, look at these new vending machines Coca Cola is planning to set up in all over Japan by year-end. They feature 46-inch LCD touch panels (1m high, 57cm wide) instead of buttons or knobs. → Read More
What’s better than a tablet with one touchscreen? A tablet with two touchscreens. That’s at least what Toshiba must have thought when they cooked up the Libretto W100 with its dual 7-inch multi-touch displays (1,024×600 resolution and LED backlighting for both). There’s no physical keyboard, but you’ll get a virtual one with haptic response. → Read More
It’s hard out here at Disrupt for gadget geeks, but we just got lucky. Merel Technologies is showing off a very cool multi-touch web table that uses gesture recognition, object recognition, and multi-user multi-touch to create a new way to interact with media and kiosk apps.
The best thing? It costs $3,200 for the 32-inch model and $4,200 for the 42-incher and they’re available now.
The table is… → Read More
One of the issues that comes up in touchscreen user interfaces is that, well, you have to touch them. Sure, you can move your finger, or use two, or tap it twice, that sort of thing — but you’re either touching it or not. Essentially you only have one type of “click” any given input can do. Hover detection is something Wacom tablet users will be familiar with, as the type of detection used… → Read More
The capacitive vs. resistive touchscreen dispute has been more or less settled with the popularity of the iPhone and other lozenge-shaped touchscreen devices, but that doesn’t mean the loser has to just bow out. The resistive touchscreen is still useful for more precision work using a stylus; I doubt we’ll have capacitive artists’ tablets any time soon. But for convenience, the latter can’t be… → Read More
Now that the Internet is blowing out a kidney over news coming out of Asia that Apple bought up a bunch of touchscreens, I thought it might be nice to posit what Cupertino has in store for those babies. The news came from Digitimes this morning: “Wintek revealed that it is currently working with Apple to develop some new products, but it said it does not know what applications the new products… → Read More
Some clever detective work has unearthed this Sony patent, which seems to combine a large touchscreen (à la the Microsoft Surface or iTable) with a printer. Put your digital camera on top and, yes, your photos print out. It must be magic. → Read More
It’s been 1.5 years since the iPhone began to take over hit the market, causing major tremors throughout the mobile world. The promise/combination of a worthwhile touch screen and accompanying UI have proven to be an incredible success, with iPhones quickly reaching the top of the smartphone charts. It follows then, that most other mobile manufacturers (and now computer makers have joined… → Read More
PNF (Pen And Free Co.) released the Duo, so you can turn your laptop into a touchscreen without ripping it apart. You just install the receiving station on top or on the side of your screen, define the area you want to use as a tablet and that’s all. However, you have to use a stylus to operate. The laptop version supports up to 15.4″, the monitor version to 22″. Oh and it is… → Read More
Caution: Pink Floyd blasting as soon as you hit “play” I’m pumped about this because I just got a G1. This video shows a pretty basic paint program tracking two inputs at once — it’s pretty hacked together but it clearly works okay. We knew it was possible technically, now we see it’s possible practically, and hopefully soon we’ll see it supported… → Read More
Caution: Pink Floyd blasting as soon as you hit “play” I’m pumped about this because I just got a G1. This video shows a pretty basic paint program tracking two inputs at once — it’s pretty hacked together but it clearly works okay. We knew it was possible technically, now we see it’s possible practically, and hopefully soon we’ll see it supported… → Read More
I guess you don’t know you’re leading the pack unless you hear the other dogs barking at your heels. GestureTek is a company that puts out touch- and gesture-based interactive screens in more various forms than the Microsoft Surface project. From what I can tell, it doesn’t track as exactly or as reliably as the seriously stress-tested Surface, but it also has a more attractive… → Read More
LG announced the KP500 this morning, which they’re touting for it’s “affordable introduction price”. They’re not actually, you know, telling anybody what it’ll cost – just that it’ll be “attractively-priced”. For a supposedly budget-friendly phone, the specs they’ve disclosed so far aren’t too shabby. It’ll have… → Read More
Apple Insider uncovered some documents filed by Apple a couple months ago detailing some aspects of a touch-based interface in a full OS X environment. It shows a pair of horribly gnarled hands interacting with iTunes, and vaguely human hands touching generic windows and such. A sort of “virtual click wheel” seems to be implemented, although other than that there are few revelations. → Read More
Who here likes buttons? Like, honest-to-God buttons that you push and then something happens? I do. It’s one of the reasons why I’m fairly nonplussed by the iPhone. (All the pre-launch THIS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD nonsense also bothered me, too.) I’m not trying to be all “unreasonable” or anything, but I simply prefer the feeling I get when pushing a physical button. → Read More
This week we’re going to take a closer look at what Devin thinks is just a fad. Touchscreens seem to be invading all sorts of devices from cell phones to TVs more so now than ever before. They’re meant to improve our lives, or, at the very least, make things more convenient. But do they? How do they even work? Will one form or another of the technology last? Surely, Devin is wrong. → Read More
[photopress:girlycloudbook.jpg,full,center] I knew it. I told you people, and nobody wanted to listen. I said that the next great tech battleground would be in tiny, ultra-portable PCs and everyone laughed. Well chuckle no more, hombres, because the upgrades coming to the Everex CloudBooks could just start things off with a bang. The director of marketing for Everex says that the next rendition of… → Read More
When our own intrepid reporter took on the Surface at CES, he came away completely convinced and eager to acquire one to use as his coffee table since his current one (and his dog) were ruined by a vengeful and intoxicated lady friend. Well, Microsoft really, really wants to make his dream a reality, not least because they could charge him like $15,000 for the privelege. At the moment… → Read More
Touchers unite! Dell’s much-anticipated but rather expensive touchscreen laptop/tablet PC is now available for purchase on their website. The hard drive is a little skimpy, so upgrade that, and you can get a Core2 Duo for like $70 more so I’d hook that up too. Customization is your friend. The XT and the other Latitudes are also shipping free for a limited time, so put on your buying… → Read More
So you’ve got your iPhone and your iPod Touch and your Microsoft Surface, and maybe you’ve got yourself a little pink DS lite. What do these things have in common? Two things: they all share a trendy interface — the touchscreen — and they all will be forgotten in a few years’ time. The touchscreen is a minor blip on the giant radar of human interface devices, and it… → Read More
I am willing to bet most of you didn’t know there was a HaptiTouch 1.0 or even HaptiTouch 1.7.2.3.8. But this video will fill you in on all the details of this magical touchscreen interface made with more than a half-dozen patents, and you will be set free from your ignorance. True, this marketing movie seems a bit dated, but F-Origin, the company behind all the technologies, exists very… → Read More
Lucky day, a company has developed a touchscreen where users don’t even have to touch the screen in order to use it; simply waving your hand in front of the TochKo screen (as far as six inches away) does the trick. Apparently it was originally designed for medical use, but let’s not forget that the Internet was originally a military invention. I doubt DARPA thought it’d be used… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
