Touch Screen

There are several options out there for those looking to use capacitive touchscreen devices while not getting frosty fingers this winter. We've looked at the North Face Etip and Agloves, now a solution that is cheap, simple and lets you keep wearing your favorite pair of gloves – even while tweeting how cold you are!  Read More

Are you the sort of person who loves touch screen technology but yearns for the mechanical feel and security of a real keyboard? You may be interested to hear that Toshiba’s Libretto w100 dual touch-screen mini notebook will be the first device to hit the market that incorporates Immersion Corporation’s TouchSense 2500 solution that provides touch feedback effects when hitting keys. The haptic effects help to minimize the chance of mis-keying, provide immediate tactile response and allow you to get all touchy and feely at the same time.  Read More

Fujitsu has announced the release of multi-input resistive touch panels with the ability to detect simultaneous inputs. This means that potentially you could have input coming from your finger and from a stylus at the very same time. While multi-touch is nothing new to most readers (especially those with a taste for Apple products), it should be clarified that this functionality is normally associated with capacitive touch screens and not resistive panels like these new ones from Fujitsu.  Read More

Computex Taipei 2010 is the biggest IT show in Asia and one of the most important such shows in the world and we'll be there next week to report on the hundreds of new products. One Computex new release certain to cause a stir is ASROCK's AIWI, an Apple app which turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a Nintendo Wii-type motion controller for computer games, and maybe more importantly, using the touch screen as a touch pad for controlling the cursor and keyboard functions of a computer. It's not just very clever and very cool – it might just have some serious implications for the future of the Computer (and TV) Human Interface. Our esteemed colleagues at Tweaktown.com have released a sneak peak video demonstration which is well worth a look.  Read More

Always thought your skin was more than just a device to keep your insides tucked in neatly and out of harms’ way? Well, you were right. Chris Harrison has developed Skinput, a way in which your skin can become a touch screen device or your fingers buttons on a MP3 controller. Harrison says that as electronics get smaller and smaller they have become more adaptable to being worn on our bodies, but a couple of drawbacks are that the monitor and keypad/keyboard have to be big enough for us to operate the equipment. This can defeat the purpose of small devices but with the clever acoustics and impact sensing software, Harrison and his team can give your skin the same functionality as a keypad. Add a pico projector attached to an arm band, and your wrist becomes a touch screen.  Read More

According to a patent recently filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Sony is working on a universal game controller that could be used with competitor consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo. The proposed controller would see an LCD touch screen positioned on the front of the controller to replace the controller's face buttons, directional pad and thumb-sticks.  Read More

A 13.3-inch Capacitive In-Cell Multi-Touch LCD panel from LG is the first in-cell touch screen panel to obtain "Windows 7 Touch Logo" certification from Microsoft. The LCD panel is designed for laptops with multi-touch functions that enable simultaneous recognition of two touch points. Unlike conventional touch screens that use films to enable touch capability, the product has sensors built into the display.  Read More

Samsung unveiled the Samsung Wave (S8500) in Barcelona today. The handset is the first to use Samsung’s new, open mobile platform, Samsung bada, runs a super high quality touch screen AMOLED 3.3” WVGA (800x480 pixels) display, a Social Hub to integrate contacts and connections, and TouchWiz 3.0 for an intuitive and hugely customizable user interface. The Wave runs on a high-speed homegrown CPU, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi 802.11n, has a 5 mpx camera and will be available globally from April 2010.  Read More

In 1995 Hans Constin filed a patent for the Smartphone design of the well known Communicators. He still holds the worldwide patents today and has now come up with a new and clever solution for the era of touch smartphones à la iPhone. His NewCon Smartphone design has a large touch screen but when flipped open and turned, the compact Smartphone becomes a mini laptop with a full QWERTY keyboard. As much as we hate the QWERTY layout, it’s a clever design.  Read More