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Touch Screen
Displax 'skin' turns virtually any surface into multi-touch display
By Mick Webb
15:45 February 4, 2010 PST
Portuguese company Displax has announced the development of a “skin” that can turn virtually any surface into a multi-touch display. Based on capacitive technology, the “skin” is developed on a thinner-than-paper polymer film that turns a surface, be it glass, plastic or wood, curved or flat, into an interactive touch screen. The interface is so sensitive that it even detects when you blow on it, registering both the intensity and direction of the air flow. Read More
Pressure sensitive technology set to bring 3D capability to touchscreens
By Darren Quick
18:55 January 31, 2010 PST
Touchscreens found in most mobile devices today use capacitance or resistance technology - fine for detecting input from a finger, but not so great when it comes to detecting how much pressure that finger is applying. However, this limitation could be about to change with news that Japanese touch screen manufacturer, Nissha, has licensed new technology that allows a touchscreen to detect pressure, even from a finger. This adds a third dimension to touchscreen interaction and opens up a raft of potential applications. Read More
Autograph for iPhone app lets you sign on the dotted screen
By Jeff Salton
23:06 January 27, 2010 PST
From Ten One Design - the creators of the Pogo Stylus (the first capacitive touch-screen stylus for the iPhone and iPod touch) comes Autograph for iPhone – a new iPhone/iPod touch app that lets you sign off documents by creating a digital signature directly on your device’s capacitive touch screen. Read More
Apple's US$500 iPad - concise details of the announcement
By Gizmag Team
11:40 January 27, 2010 PST
The Apple iPad was announced today. In a nutshell, it’s a bigger iPhone that runs all the same apps on a 9.7 inch touch screen and has a 10 hour battery life and 30 day stand-by. It’s half an inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is powered by Apple’s own custom 1GHz ARM A4chip and can run up to 64 GB of storage. It has all the wireless connectivity of the iphone (802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1), a built-in speaker and microphone, accelerometer and uses the same 30-pin Dock connector as the iPod and iPhone. The first iPads will ship in 60 days, with 3G models taking another month. Pricing starts at US$499 and runs to US$829. Read More
Robo Cafe: robot waiters make a restaurant a one-man operation
By Loz Blain
13:59 January 14, 2010 PST
Back in the 70s, the robots were coming for our crappy manufacturing jobs. Now, it seems, they're coming for our crappy table service jobs. Korean company ITM Technology has developed a restaurant concept around a cute little robot that fulfills the role of a waiter - it takes orders from customers, either verbally or through a touch screen, then relays them to the kitchen, and brings the food out when it's ready. Robo Cafe eliminates ordering errors, reduces staffing costs dramatically for restaurant owners, and even brings the boss all the tips. It's probably not going to be nearly as interesting to Tiger Woods, though. Read More
Sony launches Dash, the 'personal Internet viewer'
15:17 January 10, 2010 PST
Some may call it a sophisticated alarm clock, but the truth is that the Dash presented by Sony at CES 2010 is simply much more than that. A one-of-a-kind "personal Internet viewer," this device is designed to let you pull all sorts of information off the Internet from its 7-inch touch screen even when you don't have a PC at hand. Read More
North Face Etip gloves for touch screens
00:26 January 6, 2010 PST
You are in a freezing cold condition with a thick glove on. How do you use your touch screen GPS, touch screen phone or a touch screen media player without taking your gloves off? Well, you can if you are wearing the new North Face Etip gloves. They feature the company’s "X-Static" fabric on the tips of the thumbs and index fingers which allows you to operate any touch-screen device, without having to take them off. Read More
Gestural interfaces make touch screens look so ‘last year’
By Jeff Salton
21:21 December 13, 2009 PST
The gestural interface used by Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report was based on work by MIT Media Lab’s Hiroshi Ishii, who has already commercialized similar large-scale gestural interface systems. However, such systems comprise many expensive cameras or require the user to wear tracking devices on their fingers. To develop a similar yet cost effective gestural interface system that is within reach of many more people other researchers at MIT have instead been working to develop screens with embedded optical sensors to track the movement of the user’s fingers that could quickly make touch screens seem outdated. Read More
Mimo announces 7-inch iMo Pivot Touchscreen Monitor
By Jude Garvey
18:21 November 25, 2009 PST
Mimo Monitors has followed on from its road-tough Mimo 710-S “Mobile Slider” USB monitor and the portable Mimo 710 mini monitor with a foray into the current touchscreen monitor war. The iMo Pivot Touch is a USB-based 7" mini-monitor that offers full touchscreen capability for less than US$200. Read More
Intouch IT7150 adds all touch interface to the digital photo frame
By Darren Quick
23:09 November 23, 2009 PST
The humble photo frame has come a long way in the last decade. It has been transformed from a cheap and easy gift idea for displaying a single cherished photo into a not so cheap and easy gift idea capable of displaying slideshows of a multitude of images, not to mention video, and the ability to connect to the Internet. We're now seeing touch interaction added to the digital photo frame's long list of technological trimmings and this new offering - the Intouch IT7150 wireless Internet frame - uses a full-touch capabilities to deliver a more user-friendly interface with expanded capabilities. Read More
Acer delivers its first touchscreen notebook and updates the Timeline series
07:39 October 18, 2009 PDT
Up until now, touchscreen laptops have been one of two things — either low-resolution and lacking the horsepower to perform heavy tasks, or just too expensive. With the upcoming Aspire 5738PG, a multi-touch screen notebook sporting Windows 7 and some respectable specs priced at less than US$800, Acer is looking to bring a quality touchscreen experience within the budget of a wider range of users. On the same day, the PC giant also announced an update to its Timeline series with the addition of a 11.6-inch notebook and the transition to Intel dual-core processors on all existing models. Read More
Acer Liquid puts Android 1.6 on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset
By Tim Hanlon
17:02 October 14, 2009 PDT
There's already one smartphone running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset, the Toshiba TG-01, but being Windows Mobile-based, it's a little harder to get excited about than the Acer Liquid - Acer's first Android-based phone running on Android 1.6 (aka Donut). Read More
Getac's resistive-type multi-touch technology works with or without gloves
By Darren Quick
02:34 October 9, 2009 PDT
Anyone who has tried to use a multi-touch touchscreen with anything other than their bare skin will know that it’s just not possible, no matter how hard you press. That’s because the capacitance technology used for the bulk of multi-touch devices doesn’t detect pressure, but measures the changes in electrical resistance caused by contact with a conductor – in this case, the human body. That might be annoying in cold climates, but is an even bigger problem in situations that require the wearing of protective gloves. Getac’s line of rugged Tablet PCs will be the first commercially-available rugged computers to solve this problem by offering a multi-touch screen that works with or without gloves. Read More
Microsoft patent multi touch screen keyboard
By Mick Webb
20:49 September 29, 2009 PDT
Up until now, touch screen keyboards have been problematic in that the user has had to look at the screen to navigate the location of the keys. That could all be set to change with news that Microsoft has filed a most interesting patent for a touch screen keyboard that uses multi touch capabilities to incorporate the user’s own hands as a physical point of reference. Read More
Creative gets in touch with ZEN X-Fi2 PMP
By Mick Webb
10:32 September 29, 2009 PDT
Creative's latest personal media player - the ZEN X-Fi2 - is the company's first full touch screen offering and features a 3” screen with a simplified navigational menu in landscape format, X-Fi sound enhancement and a TV-out connection for viewing video and photos on the big screen in a package that weighs just 75g. Read More
DUSTBOT collaborative, multifunctional robots keep your town clean
20:14 September 23, 2009 PDT
A group of European companies and universities have collaborated to produce a series of multifunctional robots for urban hygiene tasks. With abilities ranging from door-to-door garbage pickup and transportation, to automated street cleaning, the DUSTBOTs recently demonstrated their skills at a station in the town of Atxuri, Portugal. Read More
Pure Sensia DAB/WiFi touchscreen radio
By Jeff Salton
00:08 September 22, 2009 PDT
Not long ago, radio manufacturers had only to worry about the basic look of their devices. Rarely were new stations added, reception methods hadn’t changed in a long time and, generally, smaller was better. Sure, they had to combine an alarm clock in some models, but that wasn’t too difficult. Now a radio has to be a veritable Swiss army knife of appliances, and this is where the new Sensia from Pure excels. Its list of features includes a large color touch screen display, DAB, FM stereo and digital radio with full Band III, wireless media streaming, input from iPods/iPhones and MP3 players, and Pure Apps that let you connect with Facebook, Twitter, Picasa and thousands of podcasts. Read More
LG announce the LG-GW620 Android powered smartphone
By Mick Webb
15:24 September 20, 2009 PDT
LG has announced the release of its first foray in to the Android powered world of smartphones, the LG-GW620, aimed at meeting the demands of both first time and existing smartphone users. Read More
Find your way on foot with Navigon's 24 series Pedestrian Navigation
By Mick Webb
16:56 September 14, 2009 PDT
For the intrepid urban explorers out there, Navigon has unveiled a new 24 series of personal navigation systems featuring a “Last Mile” function that continues guiding the user on foot – as well as remembering where the car is parked. Read More
Toshiba unveils JournE touch home multimedia tablet
By Jeff Salton
00:25 September 7, 2009 PDT
Toshiba’s JournE touch is a portable, wireless home multimedia tablet with a 7-inch (17.8cm) color touch screen display, which serves as a communication and infotainment center for every member of the household. Users can browse the Internet and download digital content anywhere in the house in a flash, because the device boots instantaneously. However, with its small size (only 14mm/0.5in thick) and great user-interface, we say families better get ready for a fight over who gets to use it. Read More
Environmentally-friendly navigation - the Vexia Econav 435 GPS
By Mick Webb
18:16 September 1, 2009 PDT
As GPS navigation systems increase in popularity, the world’s fuel supplies simultaneously are in decline. However, the Vexia Econav 435 GPS is attempting to do its bit for the environment by offering a system that gives drivers information on the most economical route, which gear to use and when - even how firmly to accelerate. The manufacturers say the aim of the unit is to reduce drivers' fuel consumption by up to one third. Read More
Smarter touch surfaces with new pressure sensitive technology
By Darren Quick
01:43 August 28, 2009 PDT
Resistance touch technology, which generally relies on the use of a stylus or similar instrument, typically detects touch by measuring changes in electrical resistance. But it can only detect one touch at a time. Touch screen using capacitance technology can detect multiple inputs, but can’t detect pressure. Now researchers at New York University (NYU) are looking to get the best of both worlds with a new type of touch-sensitive pad that responds precisely to pressure and can detect multiple inputs at once. Read More
Tests on reducing glare and fingerprints from touch screen devices
By Jeff Salton
23:04 August 27, 2009 PDT
Big touch screens, like those used on smart phones and portable media devices, are great … unless the sun is out. Then the glare can be a killer, rendering some devices next to useless. Scientists have developed a test for analyzing reflection-resistant coatings to make using touch screen devices easier. The research also includes defining a better smudge-resistant coating to deter ugly fingerprints and scratches from screens and surfaces. Read More
Sony adds wireless Daily Edition eBook reader to family
By Jeff Salton
00:06 August 26, 2009 PDT
Sony has added a third child to its eBook reader family – the Reader Daily Edition – a sibling to the Pocket Edition and the Touch Edition products, which were released earlier this month. The Daily Edition eBook reader, however, is the ‘big brother’ to the other two, boasting a larger page view (seven inches wide) and 3G wireless connectivity. Read More
Help design a car for the future
By Paul Ridden
23:22 July 27, 2009 PDT
C,mm,n (pronounced common) is an open community design project that is not only counting on its members to help design a car but is also tasking them with producing a whole new mobility solution to cope with the challenging demands of the future. The blueprints for the proposed electric car concept and the mobility concepts are freely available under an open source licence and contributions are welcome from anyone and everyone. Read More
dariusvons
- February 10, 2010 @ 00:56 UTC
