OpticalBar turns part of a display into a touchscreen - sort of
Want a touchscreen display? Then you'd better just buy one, or pick up a Tablet PC. That's the conclusion of PC Magazine, which checked out the H2i SimplyTouch OpticalBar, a $60 sensor that hooks up to the top of a monitor and tracks finger movements over a portion of the screen, allowing that part of the display to become a virtual touchscreen. The reviewer found that using a keyboard and mouse is still quicker, and that the sensor can still misread taps, despite the fact that the system is designed to work with SimplyTouch's own software, which has a preset group of icons that you can assign to different tasks. The review didn't even mention the biggest problem we see with this: pizza grease on the screen. But, then, maybe we need to get away from our desk a little more.
