Microsoft adds twist to handhelds with force-sensing technology

Surely you're not content with just multi-touch and built-in accelerometers, right? Microsoft Research is expecting not, as it's already working towards integrating force-sensing technology that will enable gestures to twist on-screen imagery without crafting UMPCs out of flexible material. Essentially, the gurus behind the idea feel that implementing said tech would "turn an otherwise passive component that just holds the device together into an active input surface." In the future, it's likely that auditory cues would enable users to know when they've applied enough pressure to cause a change, and of course, they expect it to work hand-in-hand with existing human-computer interfaces. Yeah, who needs keypads these days, anyway? [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via BBC, thanks Joe]

[Gad Get Posted Apr 19th 2008 7:10PM]

Tell me about it. Do you realize how many D's it got right there?

[Ethan Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:22PM]

I hope they didn't spend too much on this.

[StemSell Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:23PM]

Obviously this'll require Windows TE™ (Torque Edition)

[Aguiluz Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:35PM]

I don't want to bend my electronics. Cracking a circuit board or the screen will not be good.

[KezMondo Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:38PM]

Christ, I go out all day and I come back to not even 5 posts and THIS?! i'm dissapointed engadget. i'm even considering switching to some other blog...

[Aguiluz Posted Apr 19th 2008 6:14PM]

To what? Gizmodo?

[derX Posted Apr 19th 2008 7:12PM]

Hrm, I find myself in conflict....

If this IS a sarcastic post, you have failed. Miserably so, in fact.

If IS NOT, I am obligated to post something along the lines of....

Okay, Engadget, your heard Christy, apparently we have an unsatisfied Engadgeteer. What type of site are you all running, here? Christy is upset. FIX IT.

NOW!

Because Christy says so, she'll leave godammit!

Yeah, now you put up a couple of fluff articles just to satisfy Our Highness. Sorry, Christy, it will NOT happen again.
---------------------------------

Why do people always threaten to go to another blog?

If you don't like it, haul ass.


------------------
Please pick the appropriate one. Thank you.

[derX Posted Apr 19th 2008 7:12PM]

Hrm, I find myself in conflict....

If this IS a sarcastic post, you have failed. Miserably so, in fact.

If IS NOT, I am obligated to post something along the lines of....

Okay, Engadget, your heard Christy, apparently we have an unsatisfied Engadgeteer. What type of site are you all running, here? Christy is upset. FIX IT.

NOW!

Because Christy says so, she'll leave godammit!

Yeah, now you put up a couple of fluff articles just to satisfy Our Highness. Sorry, Christy, it will NOT happen again.
---------------------------------

Why do people always threaten to go to another blog?

If you don't like it, haul ass.


------------------
Please pick the appropriate one. Thank you.

[Cal Posted Apr 19th 2008 7:20PM]

Switching blogs won't stop slow news days (or weeks...)

[KezMondo Posted Apr 19th 2008 7:23PM]

Heh, you automatically assumed I was a girl. Fail. plus, there was no need to post it twice, you got your point across first time round. Lastly, I would never go to another blog becuase engadget rules for news when something good is happening eg apple keynote, ces etc etc

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2008 10:42PM]

I think you need to relax a little.

[Northerngeek Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:42PM]

I like Microsoft but my first impression was- how really do they expect that to be useful. I was skeptical.... however upon seeing the PDF it does seem rather nice as a UI- bending it to zoom in or out, change window and simple scrolling seems like a good trick- assuming it is cheap and small enough to be in phones. A UMPC would also benefit but I really want to see how small this can get.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:42PM]

Nice!

[Mr Death Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:45PM]

Force sensitive? I can hear an advertising slogan coming on: "May the Force be with you!"

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:50PM]

this seems really cool, maybe they'll start to use it on the Zune's TWIST interface??? or the xbox, which started implementing the TWIST interface since the fall update. (They really call it the twist interface)

[StemSell Posted Apr 19th 2008 5:56PM]

~

There once was an MS contraption
Relying on TwistyWrist™ action
"But two hands a must!" mourned
All those surfing for porn
'Cause, like then there's no... 'comming attraction'!

~

[DBG Posted Apr 19th 2008 6:17PM]

I don't know if this is the right direction, but I like the realm they are entering.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 7:20PM]

Typical. Another completely unusable product from MS. Even if its in its conceptual stage, you can clearly see the vision of MS designers as complete off the mark when it comes to usability.

[Darkest Daze Posted Apr 19th 2008 7:48PM]

This thing is just begging for an "Indian-Burn Simulator". Virtual "Snap the Handheld" would be fun too, but if taken too seriously, might no longer be virtual.

[dirt junkie Posted Apr 19th 2008 8:45PM]

So thats what MS is doing with all those warped motherboards from their 360's. Glad there not going to waste! Wonder if I can get a discount when this lauch's as I've sent 2 xbox's back for repair!

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 8:59PM]

Finally, my strangling skill can be used to increase office productivity instead of disposing of interns.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 9:11PM]

Quikboy:

Note: this is no way associated with my initial post or reply, but an off-topic response to Quikboy's (possible) assertion that I had crappy hardware.

On the issue of crappy computer and not being Windows fault for the Vista issues (if that it was you meant)..... uh, hardly:

3.2 dual core, 4 gigs of RAM (forgot the Mhz, but it scored 5.5 on the Vista test out of the best rating of 5.9), nVidia Quadro with dual GPU's (256 megs apiece), Creative X-Fi Platinum, 4 gig Sandisk Cruzer USB thumbdrive being used for ReadyBoost, Vista Ultimate (32 bit), Tweak-UAC to turn off all three levels of UAC, two SATA II's in a hardware RAID 0 (which scored 5.9). And yes, EasyCleaner run on a regular basis to keep deleting all the apps that want to start up with my computer, so it is running quite lean, process count-wise. Defrag is performed nightly, including Disk-Cleanup with a custom Sageset.

So in a word, hardware-wise and software-wise, I know what the f*ck I am doing.

No crashes, except IE & EchoVNC locking up on me periodically, but no major OS crashes. My complaints with Vista are:

1) Drivers. Main one here is BT: I have a pair of Motorola HT820's that I used to be able to switch between headset and audio sink and control WMP with no problems. Now, none of that works. I am presently tethered to my machine with a wired headset. Toshiba BT stack, generic MS BT stack, it doesn't matter. It pairs, but with zero functionality. Ditto for alot, but not all, of the services on my cell phone, so I get to send photo's MMS to my email address. This does not count the box of peripheals and gizmos sitting next to my desk that I have yet to find drivers for.

2) No "snap" to programs loading. This simply should not be happening with a hardware based RAID 0 Sata 300 config, fast RAM, dual-core 3.2 and a lean amount of processes running. This was not the case when I had XP on it.

3) Network copying over of files is a joke. It's worse then a joke when you are porting a DOS app to .Net that runs on DBF's, and the DOS app has to keep 85 of those DBF's open on the server. I use TameDOS for sandboxing the DOS app's resources, and it runs fine when the DBF's are local. Off the network, forget about it. What's really bad is that I have Virtual PC 2007 installed with a copy of XP, and it does it (copying files) a hell of alot faster then Vista, even though it is just being emulated on Vista ...WTF?

4) On more then one occasion, I have had icons such as the recycling bin just simply not be there... the text was, the space was, but no icon. I have also started to experience "double" icons, where the secondary duplicate icon is half there below the main one. If this was video card related, we both know that it would not happen just to icons on the desktop.

5) The UAC. We use EchoVNC (a fork off VNC, but I suspect all VNC flavors would be the same, I know TightVNC has this problem). Anyway, I have at least a couple hundred client computers on my server running EchoServer. Out of that, I'd say 25% and steadily growing, are Vista OS's. You log in via VNC, and as soon as you need to do something that requires a UAC prompt, you click "OK", and the whole OS shifts the security setting, which terminates your VNC connection. Much fun having to reconnect and reconnect. In order to not get kicked off, you have to disable all three levels of UAC, not just the one accessible in the control panel. The other two hidden in the registry as well. Thankfully, Tweak-UAC makes short order of this problem... however, try explaining to a business owner or their "tech" guy (the proverbial "little tommy down the street") that they need to disable the UAC first. Great fun. Now, for shits and grins, make yourself a user on Windows 2003 Server. Leave yourself in the User group only. Log in via VNC. Run a program with "Run as Administrator". You'll notice you do not get kicked off, why? On 2003 Server, they sandbox the security context for that program alone... why couldn't they have done this on Vista?

6) And if you think VNC is alone in these problems with the UAC, you are quite mistaken. Development for Vista is a nightmare, and most of it is due to the UAC. I could post an endless list of problems the UAC causes in developing. But don't take my word for it, browse on over to a personal friend's site called eggheadcafe.com ... if your a Windows developer, you no doubt use that site quite often already and probably have it bookmarked.

Crappy hardware? No, not in the least. Everything I have installed that *runs*, runs great. But as "someone" at eggheadcafe.com pointed out, it is the "OS from Hell". Or as another developer friend put it a few weeks ago, "you're in the honeymoon phase". I laughed at him. I am no longer laughing.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 9:12PM]

ah jeez, not the hit the reply button twice again stuff....

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 10:11PM]

Him that could possible give a touch driven Zune like product a one up on the Ipod touch/iphone. Hopefully they can bring it to market quickly. Competition rocks.

It’s sad that some derives their entire self-image based on what people they have never met think about them (hypereric). Try moving out of your mom’s basement and lay off of the World of Warcraft. It sounds like you may have more then enough disposable income to make some one of the opposite-sex more then happy. May also suggest taking some lessons on learning how to coup with people and anger control. After that I’m sure you would be a very productive member of society..

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 19th 2008 10:34PM]

Wow Dr. Schoenfield, you're amazing! It's all coming together!
{kicking back on the good doctor's chaise lounger}:

I think it all started when my momma dropped me on my head. I was furious with her... but all my friends defended her. At that moment, I decided I had to seek approval from anonymous people... so I turned to BBS's and then later, the Internet. But you see, I still love my momma, so I had to stay close even after the age of when "normal" people move out of their parents' house.

Looking back, I guess this stunted my social growth. But it is a trade-off... I mean, if I was to move out, who would cook for me and wash my clothes? Besides, all my disposable income that could be used for moving out and hooking up with a member of the opposite sex is invested in my WoW addiction ... you oughta see all the boxes I have running for my gold mining operation!

But I do want to be a productive member of society! Can you help me, Doc?

;-)

[MNeko Posted Apr 19th 2008 10:40PM]

I think Sony already patented this. You twist the PSP and the disc pops out! Amazing!

[Sponge Posted Apr 19th 2008 11:31PM]

Will this go into Surface?

[substance90 Posted Apr 20th 2008 2:26AM]

Wow, I can see great usage of this exciting new technology... I mean NOT! M$ sux.

[rrrrrrrrrrryan Posted Apr 20th 2008 6:24AM]

Bopping and pulling sensors in the works, I hope?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2008 5:13AM]

Pfft... The PSP already utilizes this feature with its alternative eject "feature".

Also, it would be cool if you could delete documents in Windows Explorer by tearing them in half with this twist gesture.

[ecobore Posted Apr 20th 2008 5:26AM]

Now where have I seen a graphic effect like that? Oh yes, Mac OSX when you minimise a window to the dock - jeez Microserf, can you try to at least be a TINY bit innovative and original? NO? nuff said!

[Quikboy Posted Apr 20th 2008 11:57AM]

Must I list how Apple has copied MS's UI?

- The new menubar in Leopard had a nasty translucent look, that was awful compared to the one in Vista.
- The homescreen on the iPhone is the same as the program launcher in WinMo. Just with a more fancy graphic look, and rounded corners.

Really, can't Apple be original and and innovative instead of copying from MS?

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2008 9:35AM]

i'd rather have the IPhone

[HumongousBlunt Posted Apr 20th 2008 10:35AM]

Squeeze dis...==============O>

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2008 10:44AM]

So if the onscreen keyboard becomes unresponsive you can just PRESSURE the Task Manager into appearing?

[pfromg Posted Apr 20th 2008 11:22AM]

great pepper grinder.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2008 1:01PM]

So 1970 !

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2008 3:31PM]

I always knew M$ was twisted.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 20th 2008 10:36PM]

I think there should be more examples of the practical applications of this technology. The coolness approach only seems to work for Apple.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 21st 2008 12:01AM]

I already twist some of my more frustrating gadgets... Someone from Microsoft probably saw me get pissed at my brandless music playing device or my cell phone in public and said "that crazy person has a good idea!"

I'd like a cut please! :)

P.S. - I didnt mention any brand names!! I win, fanboys! No angry replies for me!