Web Concepts

Posts Tagged ‘touchscreens’

Given the fact that the minimum size for the screen is 46 inches--and it can be much larger, like the size of a conference table or even an entire wall--the device is capable of making the very small very large. The multitouch surface can recognize the touches of several different people at the same time, adding a whole new dimension to collaborative science and lab instruction.

This isn’t just an overblown iPad app--files can be up to 200 gigabytes, so there’s some real computing power backing the multitouch microscope. But from a technology standpoint, it’s not so very complex. Samples are digitized using a microscopy scanner and put onto a server from which the touchscreen device continuously receives them over the Web.

From there, an entire group can stand around a massive visualization of a sample, swiping, zooming, and otherwise manipulating it intuitively and without any kind of serious training. We’ll always be a bit nostalgic for the old days when we stained our own slides in chem lab, but it’s hard to argue that a wall-sized, multitouch microscope isn’t extremely cool.

[Eurekalert]

To create their super-sized touch panel, the team converted the 3-millimeter dark acrylic screen panel into a touch screen by backlighting it with six full HD projectors. The rest of the hardware isn’t particularly high-tech; to create the touch sensitivity they used six Optitrack cameras, 16 inexpensive infrared emitters, and 1,000 LEDs.

Three computers (described by the team as “old”) are connected to the cameras (two cameras per computer) and feed data to the visualization system running on a fourth computer. Even with the old computers, they have enough processing power to detect 100 points of contact simultaneously with no delay. More points of touch are possible but the program starts to slow at that point, a problem that seems like it could be fixed with some better hardware.

See it work in all of its touch-sensitive glory below, scored to a soundtrack that Tim Burton would be proud of.

[SlashGear]

The slick touchscreens of our iPhones and Droids are visually magnificent and the epitome of tech chic, but their slick, untextured glass screens don’t resonate with humans’ tactile nature (that’s why some people just can’t kick the hardware button keyboard). Good tactile touchscreens – screens that impart a feeling of touch or texture in sync with a displayed image – have thus far eluded device makers. A new Microsoft project could change all that.

Previous attempts at tactile screens have focused largely on so-called vibrotactile displays that use small voltages at different frequencies to create the illusion of texture, but Microsoft wants to offer the real deal. The tech giant’s patent calls for pixel-sized plastic cells that can be physically manipulated to create the ridges and bumps that create a realistic touch sensation.

According to the patent filing, the technology is aimed at large displays like Microsoft’s table-sized Surface display rather than portable touchscreens – for the time being, anyhow. Surface works via a projector that beams images onto the tabletop screen from below. Users’ fingers touching the other side of the screen generate infrared reflections that are picked up by sensors below, creating touchscreen capability.

Microsoft’s patent envisions augmenting this with a shape-memory polymer that responds to light commands; when certain wavelengths of UV light hit pixels they respond accordingly, becoming harder, or softer, or protruding or retracting. Syncing this up with visual information could create the kinds of ridges and bumps that could five an image texture, or simulate the feeling of pressing real buttons rather than relying on the flat touchscreen tap iPhone users are familiar with.

Don’t put it on your Christmas list – this technology is nascent to say the very least, and Microsoft is mum on its development plans or if/when a tactile product might come to market. But the fact that a big player like Microsoft is pushing beyond vibrotactile displays is promising for the field in general. If researchers there can make it work, texting on touchscreens might never be the same.

[New Scientist]

Mark Micire, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, proposes using Surface, Microsoft's interactive tabletop, to unite various types of data, robots and other smart technologies around a common goal. It seems so obvious and so simple, you have to wonder why this type of technology is not already widespread.

In defending his graduate thesis earlier this week, Micire showed off a demo of his swarm-control interface, which you can watch below.

You can tap, touch and drag little icons to command individual robots or robot swarms. You can leave a trail of crumbs for them to follow, and you can draw paths for them in a way that looks quite like Flight Control, one of our favorite iPod/iPad games. To test his system, Micire steered a four-wheeled vehicle through a plywood maze.

The system can integrate a variety of data sets, like city maps, building blueprints and more. You can pan and zoom in on any map point, and you can even integrate video feeds from individual robots so you can see things from their perspective.

As Micire describes it, current disaster-response methods can’t automatically compile and combine information to search for patterns. A smart system would integrate data from all kinds of sources, including commanders, individuals and robots in the field, computer-generated risk models, and more.

Emergency responders might not have the time or opportunity to get in-depth training on new technologies, so a simple touchscreen control system like this would be more useful. At the very least, it seems like a much more intuitive way to control future robot armies.

[UMass Lowell Robotics Lab via BotJunkie]

The engineering students' project costs less than $100

MIT students Tony Hyun Kim and Nevada Sanchez created the electrical engineering project in 2009, and put together the entire package for less than $100. The glove allows users to zoom around a map application, like using a smartphone touchscreen without the screen -- the gloved hands can "grab" the map and do the familiar pinching motion with their fingers to zoom in.

The more recent wireless addition this month came courtesy of cheap radio transmitters and receivers, with microcontrollers transmitting the finger "button presses" via RF waves. Gestures are all captured via LED lights in front of a basic webcam. Take a look:

[MIT Glove Mouse]

Apple's iPhone reigned supreme, followed from a distance by the Google Nexus One

The MOTO lab folk ran both "medium touch" and "very light touch" tests with the robot finger on each of the four smartphones previously tested with human fingers, and threw in a Blackberry Storm 2 and Palm Pre for good measure.

So who came out on top? Apple's iPhone touchscreen bested the competition by a good margin, but Google's Nexus One and the HTC Droid Eris also turned in solid performances. The Motorola Droid fared the worst and ran into trouble even on the "medium touch" test, while both the Palm and Blackberry devices showed signal loss on the "very light touch" test.

Take a look at MOTO's light-fingered robot in action:

Robot Touchscreen Analysis from MOTO Development Group on Vimeo

[MOTO]