Multi-touch

If you've ever tried to transfer your touch-typing skills onto a touchscreen tablet's virtual keyboard, you'll know what an impossible task that can be. Apart from the fact that there's no tactile guide to tell you where keys are in relation to each other, placing all of your fingers onto the screen almost always causes accidental activation of unwanted keys. Researchers from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) claim to have overcome such issues with the development of a QWERTY keyboard interface that should allow touch typists to tap away without needing visual prompts.  Read More

Let's talk for a minute about the female orgasm. For a lucky minority of women, these exist in abundance, ready to be plucked ripe off a well-fruited vine at a moment's notice. If you're one of these girls, you can stop reading now and get back to washing your hair with that herbal goop that makes you bellow like Meg Ryan. If you're at the other end of the scale, where orgasm is a fleeting, furtive animal that must be hunted with patience and skill, then this device might be up your alley … so to speak.  Read More

Japan's CyberStep has announced its expansion into the music business, with the development of the KDJ-ONE portable digital audio workstation (DAW). The device brings a synthesizer, sequencer, and multitrack audio editing into one unit, which sees user interaction via a touchscreen, a keypad, arrow pad and jog control. The mobile DAW is powered by an Atom processor, has included SSD storage and microSD expansion, and benefits from USB and Wireless LAN connectivity.  Read More

Not too long ago, Gizmag featured a futuristic digital guitar which replaced the strings of a traditional axe with rows of six buttons on the neck and a resistive touch interface for tweaking tones. Now, the designer has announced that a production model is available for pre-order. The internals have been upgraded, the touchscreen in now capacitive, there's now an onboard polyphonic synthesizer, and the digitar has been given a name – the Kitara.  Read More

Chirpy social networking portal Twitter is about to get a huge Consumer Electronics Show (CES) boost in a few weeks' time. Finland's Multitouch Ltd has announced that it will allow show visitors and exhibitors to interact with the Official 2011 International CES Twitter Wall, consisting of at least six Multitouch Cell 46 displays measuring 3 x 2 feet. Tweets will be fed to the wall in real-time from selected hashtags, including the official #CES tag, and keywords. As well as being able to open individuals posts and move them around, users will also be able to watch videos and view photos, too.  Read More

Swedish medical technology company Sectra has announced that a version of the Autopsy Table is now being offered to medical personnel. The Sectra Visualization Table will allow physicians to view virtual representations of real bodies in microscopic detail to help with decisions on treatment and care.  Read More

Researchers from Aachen University's Media Computing Group have created a computer workstation where the desk and screen are transformed into one multi-touch display. The display is curved at the middle and uses infrared emitters and cameras to track user movement over the whole of the surface, which has its graphical user interface beamed onto it by a couple of short throw projectors hidden within its wooden frame.  Read More

Researchers from the Nokia Research Center in Tampere, Finland, have turned a wall of ice into a huge interactive touchscreen display. Using infrared emitters and detectors to determine hand location and movement, the team projected images onto the blocks of ice so that users could see flames behind their hands. Happily, users didn't need to worry about catching a chill from icy fingers as the setup managed to keep track of gloved as well as ungloved hands.  Read More

As a PC user, I must admit to having suffered from a little Mac envy when Apple let loose its Magic Mouse. So I was pleased when Microsoft announced its new Arc Touch mouse, at least initially. Now Speedlink is about to introduce its CUE multi-touch mouse for PC users where the upper surface translates swipes, strokes and touches into onscreen actions. It also benefits from a high precision optical sensor and connects wirelessly to a compact nano receiver from up to 26 feet away.  Read More