Touch User Interface

Asus' Dual-Screen Laptop Concept

2009-11-13T06:08:00.000-08:00

Asus has taken one step ahead to set a new benchmark in the realm of multi-touch and touch-screen technology. Asus’s dual-screen netbook is sleek and smart concept that is in the process of turning into reality. The device is the integral part of the project called – community designed PC. The project is in the process and thus the actual device will take quite some time to be available for its potential buyers.

The device is the concept that enables users to perform tasks with hand gestures. The device can also be operated by using proper multi-touch features. The netbook has inbuilt handwriting recognition software, thus making it completely personal. Asus’s dual-screen netbook transforms into regular notebook when used as a laptop. A user can use the bottom multi-touch display screen as a keyboard while the other screen will perform as the main screen of the machine.

The best part of the Asus’s dual-screen netbook is it can be used as an e-reader when it is handled like a book and it can be used as a netbook when it is handled like a laptop with one screen resting on the tabletop. The elegant looking display screens are enough to make it exotic. While talking about this new laptop with two displays concept, the company proudly quotes, "a revolutionary dual-panel concept notebook.” Asus believes that this concept will come to life due to various ideas and suggestions collected from technology lovers around the globe.

Asus’s dual-screen netbook concept is without any doubt going to be one of the innovative laptop concepts. The laptop comes with various features including flexible touch-pad where a user can actually decide the size of the virtual keyboard as per his comfort. The concept formulated by keeping in mind factors like versatility, innovation and brilliant use of touch-technology, Asus’s dual-screen laptop concept will make you fall for it.

Mixed Reality with Multi-Touch Table

2009-11-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

“What this demo shows is that the keyboard and even a mouse can be made a tangible aspect of the multi-touch surface.”

via Multitouch+NUI

The Dual-Screen E-Reader by Entourage Edge

2009-11-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

Image by grewlike via Flickr

Dual screen e-readers make lives so easy. Firstly, they make you feel as if you are reading real paperback book. Secondly, a user can read on one screen while looking up for the meaning for unfamiliar words on the other. ‘The enTourage eDGe’ is making a revolutionary move by introducing this amazing dual-screen e-reader. They are all set to come up with their product in the market. The enTourage eDGe has designed the product systematically. The use of Android operating system makes the product more exciting.

The dual-screen e-reader by enTourage eDGe has two LCD touch screen displays. Each touch screen measures 9.7 inches diagonally. The concept uses e-link technology that enables its users to take notes with stylus on the screens. The feature of this particular e-reader that will make readers look forward to buy it is its inbuilt Wi-Fi technology. The Wi-Fi will allow users to easily download and enjoy their favorite e-books and e-magazines. Users can swiftly send e-mails.

The e-reader comes with a great advantage that will enable users to do several things including surfing internet, taking notes and handling e-mail accounts simultaneously. Blessed with admirable battery life the e-reader by the enTourage eDGe will definitely make users happy. The e-reader provides various input options including Stylus input on e-paper and touch screen, virtual keyboard and Bluetooth keyboard (optional).

The e-reader has the SD card slot so that its user can easily extend the memory. The device comes with two USB slots to make life simpler. The dual-screen e-reader by enTourage eDGe is surely going to give a tough competition to the Asus E-reader. The enTourage eDGe e-reader will be available by February, thus providing people a smart thing to buy on the occasion of the coming New Year. Endorsing features like 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth capability, this device is going to be a great success.

Apple’s Wireless Multi-touch Magic Mouse

2009-11-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

Image by Ben Dodson via Flickr

Apple’s Magic Mouse is first ever multi-touch mouse to make clicking and dragging smooth task. The mouse crafted by using touch-technology will come with every new iMac. A user can transform his Bluetooth enabled Mac by pairing it with Apple’s Magic Mouse. Its smooth and curvy body is absolutely tempting. You experience the magic of Magic Mouse when you actually start using it.

Magic Mouse comes with laser tracking that works without fail on every surface, so you are not obliged to use that mouse pad. Magic Mouse’s top surface is sensitive to touch. With Magic Mouse you can scroll the page in all possible directions. The mouse gives you chance to explore your computer screen as per your wish. The very mouse acts like a button. You have to click or double-click on the surface of touch-technology enabled mouse to work on your computer.

The inbuilt chip of Magic Mouse is nothing but the core of the mouse. The chip is responsible for the proper functioning of the mouse. Magic Mouse is intelligent enough to identify the gesture. The device does not restrict its user to work in limited space, as the mouse works effectively up to 33 feet. If you have Apple’s wireless keyboard too, then you are spared from those tangles of wires. Apple’s wireless Magic Mouse comes with on and off button that helps to switch it off when not in use.

The Magic Mouse becomes irresistible due to its glossy body. It is extra smart in gesture recognition. No matter whether you want to magnify the screen or you have to scroll the page, the mouse performs every gesture quite smoothly. The other important thing is you can personalize the usage of the mouse by changing settings. Enabling or disabling particular features is what you can do to personalize your Magic Mouse. Get your magic mouse at just $69 and get ready for 360° scrolling experience.

Bibliofile Electronic Book Reader – Books at Your Fingertips

2009-10-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

Bibliofile Electronic Book Reader could be truly a wise substitute to paperback book. This gennext electronic book reader concept has several exciting features to look out for. This gadget allows page-turning gesture, which in turn helps in producing power required to update an e-paper display. Electronic Book Reader gets cognitive, mechanical and digital feedback with the help of the page-turning gestures.

Looking for the meaning of that unfamiliar word will not be too hard with this unique design. Updating your vocabulary will not be a difficult task while using Bibliofile. The device supports various applications including dictionary. The electronic book’s active reading margin enables its user to use useful applications, and thus makes the device more user-friendly. A user can also play interesting word games on Bibliofile Electronic Book Reader.

If you are obsessed with books, you can have a collection of your all time favorite books at your fingertips with Bibliofile. The model’s capacitive touch-screen and e-paper display play the main role in providing soothing reading experience. The device could be manipulated with the use of a stylus. Apart from using stylus, the device can be used comfortably with fingers. How about immediately taking notes with stylus while reading text?

The flipper attached to the Bibliofile could be flipped up and down to go to the next page and to the previous page. The surface of the screen is so smooth that a reader will hardly feel that he is reading on the screen and not on the paper. The device is designed in a way that it can be used comfortable by a left-handed person too. Bibliofile Electronic Book Reader is a must have if you admire good books and fond of reading in your free time. With Bibliofile, wherever you go, your personalized library will follow.

Source: Yanko Design

List of Multi-Touch Devices

2009-10-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here are two lists of commercial multi touch devices I found on the web.

Wikipedia page of "List of Multi-Touch Computers and Monitors" via Multitouch + NUI
List of Multi Touch Devices by Larry Larsen

Apple Multi Touch Mouse Patents

2009-10-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

US7,168,047 is for Apple Mighty Mouse.

Mouse Having a Button-less Panning and Scrolling Switch -

US20070152966 is a little related with Apple Magic Mouse. Magic Mouse uses capacitive sensing technology but the patent presents an application of optical multi touch sensing technique.

Mouse with Optical Sensing Surface -

How Does a Virtual Keyboard Work

2009-10-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Image by momentimedia via Flickr

I have been curious about operating principles of virtual keyboards. Today I found a paper illustraing their mechanism.

H. Du, T. Oggier, F. Lustenberger, and E. Charbon, “A virtual keyboard based on true-3D optical ranging,” British Machine Vision Conference, Citeseer, 2005, pp. 220–229.

Wearable Touch (Haptic) Jacket

2009-10-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

Philips Emotions Jacket - a new level in immersive cinematic experience

"The Emotions Jacket is a research platform that uses the sense of touch to take the cinematic experience to new levels..."

Resources: LCD Multi Touch

2009-10-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Building a multi-touch LCD

BiDi Screen: 2D multi-touch + 3D gesture interaction

GRID: implementing multi-touch with standard LCDs and IR arrays.

EVOLUCE Multitouch LCD

Multitouch LCD at PCB-Dev.com (The work was developed in collaboration with EVOLUCE) via Hack a Day

NUI Group Threads on LCD FTIR and LCD Multi-Touch Material

5x6 Phototransistor Array for Multi-Touch Sensing

Readings in Digital Desk

2009-10-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

Xerox

Digital Desk

via The Gestural Interface

Microsoft

Microsoft’s Future Workplace: multi-touch office concept demo is here
Microsoft's Office of the Future
Photo Gallery: Microsoft's Office of the Future
Innovation Based on Scifi Scenarios

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Office of the Future Project at UNC

Tablet PC Articles

2009-10-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

>> Gallery: Tablet Computing From 1888 to 2010

>> Interesting Look at the Coming ‘Tablet Wars’

>> Is the Tablet PC Really ‘Elusive’?

>> Sumocat's posts at GottaBeMobile.com

A pioneer in the field of ink blogging, Sumocat works diligently to promote digital ink and Tablet PCs, earning him a Microsoft MVP award for Tablet PCs in 2008.

>> Living Magazine Cover and Spread – Outside Magazine (Future of Tablet Computing?)

User Defined Gestures for Surface Computing

2009-10-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

[image from dub]

This paper presents an approach to designing gestures on tabletop computers by analyzing real users' gestures.

J.O. Wobbrock, M.R. Morris, and A.D. Wilson, “User-defined gestures for surface computing,” Proceedings of the 27th international conference on Human factors in computing systems, Boston, MA, USA: ACM, 2009, pp. 1083-1092. (PDF)

via dub publications

DIY LCD Tablet

2009-10-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

Many people have succeded in building home-made multi-touch screens, partly due to hits of iPhone and MS Surface. Recently, MS has showed off Courier tablet concept and Apple is expected to launch a new Tablet PC next year. I guess that people may want to make their own LCD tablets. In this post, I share some links about building DIY LCD tablets.

DIY Cintiq at Bongofish

via Makezine

DIY Cintiq Tablet using Wii Remote

DIY LCD Tablet (Google Translation)

Interactive Projection Technologies and Concept Designs

2009-10-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

The World Is My Interface has introduced an interactive projection technology from Light Blue Optics.

Possible applications by the technology can be found at The World Is My Interface and Light Blue Optics.

And, here are concept designs using interactive projectors.

E-Ball PC Concept

Fujitsu Concept Phone: Pen Phone with a Projector

At CEATEC, a prototype interactive projector has been shoed off.

New Projector Casts Touch-sensitive Image

Touch Topics - Touch Technologies, Terms, and Trends

2009-10-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

3M has set up a useful website Touch Topics that provides information about touch related technologies, terms and industrial trends.

via The World Is My Interface

Multi Point and Multi Mouse Interaction

2009-10-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

Here are examples of close relevants of multi touch interaction: multi-point/multi-mouse interfaces. They seem to be useful for collaborative works with current PCs.

TeamPlayer 2.2

Microsoft MultiPoint SDK

The Multi-Pointer X Server

ManyMouse

Prototyping the Future of Digital Reading

2009-10-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcmetroblogger/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Core77 has organized an interesting design challenge, The Future of Digital Reading.

Source: Core77

Nokia B-FLOW Mobile Phone Concept with Beauty of Brazil

2009-10-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

After quite a long time, Nokia has got something interesting to share with techno-junky cell phone lovers. It is nothing but Nokia’s new mobile phone concept. It will make your day if you will have a glance at this concept with curvy body and exotic look. Diego Peralta’s design Nokia B-FLOW has something to do with Brazilian culture and lifestyle. One can easily tell that this charming cell phone concept has been inspired by Brazilian customs, their way of living and their beautiful countryside.

Nokia B-FLOW mobile phone concept with its feminine curves and elegant texture will make your heart melt. Of course Nokia B-FLOW mobile phone concept comes with sleek touch-screen. When asked about the inspirational source for coming up with such a wonderful concept, Diego Peralta says in a poetic manner, “hues of a summer sunset at the Copacabana beach.”

As per the information a three layered co injection of polycarbonate is used to make the case. A beautiful shade of orange makes the bottom layer of the case while the middle part is in shimmering pearl white. Translucent coating covers the top layer of the case. The designer has conceptualized the design without losing the original beauty of the model. No one would mind adding this chic gadget in one’s wish list immediately.

The concept also has a camera situated behind a photopolymer screen which becomes visible once camera is turned on. The photopolymer screen almost magically becomes transparent so that user can use the camera to capture memories. The best thing about Nokia B-FLOW mobile phone concept is it can be customized according to your need. With exciting social networking applications this cell phone concept is almost alluring.

With so many sophisticated features and such an elegant design, one can find hardly any shortcoming in this mobile phone concept. The only sad thing is Nokia B-FLOW is still a concept.

Source: Concept Phones

Flexpeaker – Paper-Thin Speaker with Excellent Sound Quality

2009-10-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

This era is all about size zero. When it comes to technology, ultra-slim is completely in trend. The technology is about to set a new benchmark with flexpeaker. How about abandoning your old set of ugly looking box shaped speakers and replacing them with smart looking paper-thin speakers?

Soon users will be proud to have this lovely ultra-slim speaker concept available for them. If you are wondering why this speaker is called as flexpeaker, then the name of the concept is about to reveal its one more startling feature. These speakers are not only paper-thin but they are flexible too. The outstanding design developed by Taiwan’s ITRI, flexpeaker technology will surely gain admiration from users.

Flexpeaker technology constructs a speaker with the use of many tiny speakers. These tiny speakers can be joined together to make a superior quality speaker of any size. Flexpeaker will look trendy and smart with your OLED displays and other ultra-slim gadgets. Being flexible, flexpeaker technology is space-saving. It will certainly make your surroundings look charming and chic.

Flexpeaker’s frequency does not go below 500 Hz; it gives output by reaching up to 20 KHz. Flexpeaker is compatible with day-to-day electronic gadgets and concepts. It can also be attached with huge billboards that have integral sound system. Flexpeaker technology works best with any device as it consumes little power. The recent video available on internet introduces an early prototype of the paper-thin flexpeaker.

Flexpeaker is a wonderful technology that will make an impact on young generation. Flexpeaker’s elegant look and its flexibility will make it popular. It is true that many companies and designers who are using their creativity to come up with innovative technology concepts have already made many such products available for users. A smart user has to be intelligent enough to make a right choice from the available options.

Source: IEEE Spectrum: Flexible Paper Speakers on the Way

Microsoft’s Future Workplace: multi-touch office concept demo is here

2009-10-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

A new video portraying Microsoft’s futuristic office concept will surely make you raise a brow. The video shows how our offices where we spend most of the time will look like in the future. Stephen Elop, Microsoft’s Business Division President presented the video in the speech at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Business division of Microsoft is burning midnight oil while working on various projects that will surely bring change in our lifestyles. This particular video sums up 12 different concepts by Microsoft.

This particular video demonstrating the office of the future illustrates a multi-touch table and a gesture wall system. Sounds interesting, isn’t it? Well earlier too the office of the future concept had been put forward. Sun Microsystems did present identical concept before. All ideas presented in the office of the future video are very interesting and will make you think about the reach of technology in very different way. When science and progress go hand in hand, we witness innovations in the field of technology. The office of the future is one such innovative concept.

Though Microsoft has whatever it is needed to turn such concepts into reality; it will face many obstacles in the form of difficulties and challenges to construct technology-based workplaces. Coming up with extremely thin portable displays, producing omnipresent wireless connectivity, developing high-tech computing by building devices that will give instant response to human touch, creating meta-database to keep all the information together and then display the information within seconds are some of the challenges Microsoft has to face while working on this novel concept.

If the office of the future concept turn into reality, then it is quite obvious that it will bring change. Change in lifestyle, change in office atmosphere and change in productivity too. The concept will make many day to day office tasks and operations effortless and instantaneous, thus improving productivity and saving time. Microsoft is on its way to change the workplace of the future.

The infinite book concept: digital book with actual pages

2009-10-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

Soon you will not need to carry a bundle of newspapers, a bunch of magazines and a pile of books wherever you go. Neither will you need to sit in front of computer to browse and read online news, blogs and e-books as you will carry whatever you need in a small portable touch-screen device. Ewald Neuhofer’s infinite book concept will make life flawless. It will bring a complete change in your reading experience and all positive change, credit goes to designer Ewald Neuhofer of course.

The new infinite book concept will sync the digital and analog reading experiences together. The infinite book concept is a device that will resemble a newspaper. A user can actually flip the digital pages of the device to explore and read its content. The device comes with touch screen display and interface that will increase the speed of functions and will allow a user to flip through the infinite book easily.
The best thing about the infinite book concept is it comes with a feature – infinite folding. The infinite folding is designed by keeping in mind the factor of comfort. The device can be folded to make it highly comfortable to carry along with you. These kinds of e-books are surely going to catch the attention of environmentalists as such devices are going to save thousands of trees from suffering from axe attack.

The infinite book concept allows you to read the digital book by flipping the pages, thus navigating in the same old way. The device has clip at the top that holds all the digital pages together. The device can be stored and transported without any difficulty. The infinite book concept is well-thought design as it accumulates all your data at one place. This device is nothing but a digital library with analog navigation that can be carried in your bag.
Source: Infinite Book, Transforming Paper Into Digital Media - The Design blog

PUNCH: Camera That Punches Digital Images On Blank Paper

2009-10-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

When it comes to seizing memorable moments forever, the first thing that comes in mind is none other than a camera. Digital cameras have already made our lives better, but what if we get a digital camera that produces a hardcopy within a blink of an eye. The talented designer Matty Martin has made the process of clicking photographs and sharing them easier and quicker than ever before with his outstanding innovation ? Punch.

The designer displayed his brainy innovation at the Intel University Design expo. Punch is the digital camera that enables its user to click images and immediately punch the digital images on blank paper. Punch is the camera that gives experiences of both digital and physical by enabling instant sharing of pictures. Punch saves your efforts to take or order prints of your digital images. The camera itself works as a punching machine.

Tangible output at no extra cost being the USP of Punch, it has 100% chances to become popular among photography enthusiasts. This oval shaped camera has a set of pins that actually punches a rasterized image on a piece of blank paper. Though you will not get the high quality print, the final result will leave you surprised. Apart from punching pictures, one can easily use USB cord to transform images in your Punch camera to your computer.

"This is a camera which was inspired by the loss of tangible memories," quotes Matty Martin excitedly about his digital camera concept. The camera produces sentences from the profile of the user interface to tag the metadata of each image after punching the images. Punch not only makes taking, punching and giving pictures an easy process, but also makes it effortless to enter and find images on the World Wide Web. So, smile please, say cheese and click-punch-share.

Source: The Design Blog

Wacom’s Bamboo Touch, A Multi-Touch Graphic Tablet Unveiled

2009-10-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Wacom’s forthcoming graphic tablet Bamboo Touch is no longer a secret as talks about this smart, engaging and natural input device have already travelled from pillar to post. Bamboo Touch tablet will enable multi-touch input. Bamboo Touch is available for purchase at Best Buy (retailer) before its official release exposing its thrilling features and functions.

Unlike Wacom’s earlier products Intuos 4, functionality of Bamboo Touch will depend upon fingers. Wacom has made the device more user- friendly to make it easy to operate with fingers instead of pen or stylus. With overall tablet size: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.3 in (208 x 138 x 7.5 mm), Wide-format active area size: 4.9 x 3.4 in (125 x 85 mm) and easy USB connection, Wacom’s Bamboo Touch is surely something to fancy about.

It’s smart

Bamboo Touch is a smart option as it gives all the advantages of a multi-touch device. This new and extraordinary USB trackpad supports all common operating systems and applications. Its adaptability certainly makes it an apple of the customer’s eye and a smart buy.

It’s engaging

Bamboo Touch will keep you glued to its attractive features. It is engaging as it gives majestic multi-touch experience that will make operations effortless. In addition it comes with spacious tablet space.

It’s natural

Scrolling, zooming, rotating and flipping your files and folders become possible with a touch of a finger. Four shortcut keys on the tablet make navigation absolutely uncomplicated. Its inbuilt help lessons will make you an expert Bamboo Touch user.

Some reports on the internet are talking about the possibility of several models of the product, where some models will include stylus while others will be managed with fingers. The reports till now are saying the price of the product is somewhere near $70 USD. The video from you-tube user explores the device in details. Your gestures and clicks become a magnificent experience with Bamboo Touch. Are you already feeling tickled with the touch of technology?

A thought on multi touch gestures

2009-10-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

As everybody knows, two representative multi-touch gestures are multi touch pinching and rotation. I'd like to ask you a seemingly simple question. What do you think the difference between those two?

Answer 1: the first is for changing the size of a digital object while the latter indicates to rotate it. And that's all.

However, when you think a little bit deeper, there is another difference between them from the perspective of interaction.

When you apply the pinch gesture to a real photo, nothing happens. The photo just remains there without any physical changes. However, you can physically rotate a real object by applying a rotation gesture.

Answer 2: The pinch gesture is a metaphored interaction, while the rotation gestures is the exact simulation of the real world.

PS 1: So, we have two types of (multi touch) gesures: type I and type II. Type I gestures are truly natural that reflect physics in our real world. Typical examples include rotation and panning. Type II, on the contrary, need some active interpretation by the object of the interaction. The pinch gesutre on the touch screen and waving someone to come closer in the real world might be categorized into type II.

PS2: Thanks JoshB for a helpful comment.