Imagine if you could attach a physical knob, slider, or switch to any application which called for some tactile interaction (say a music app like Live or Logic). That concept is exactly what led Lyndsay Williams to create the SenseSurface -- a modular system that allows you to
literally stick a controller onto a display when you need it. The devices use an X/Y matrix on the backside of a typical laptop display coupled with custom designed movement sensors. Lyndsay claims that the apparatus is multitouch and low friction, leaves no marks, is programmable, scaleable, and limited only by the size of the screen. The cost? Less than $100 in production. Take a look at a prototype of the system on video after the break, and hit the read link for more detail.
[Via
Boing Boing Gadgets]
posted Jul 16th 2008 7:42AM
does this mean i can now turn on girls in the videos.
or
is it a get to tighten the noose round the necks of those apple fanboys?
Hahahahahahaha!
Even with this technical advancement, you'll still have problems turning girls on.
I pwn knobs.
I can finally turn off my wife big mouth.
How come I never thought of this......oh thats right, im a dumb ass :)
yes, your avatar explains everything :)
Wow...just wow...would be awesome for prototyping stuff like industrial control panels or (small) audio mixing boards.
Not to mention massive cost savings in the production of Inferno rigs etc. Now, instead of using machined custom parts, a generic LCD will do.
I thought of the same idea months ago although more generalized.
You have a transparent token placed on a touch-screen. It is magnetic so it sticks to the screen at all times. The token has a button, so can be pressed like a real button, and the token can also be rotated. As long as you know where the token is, its orientation, and if it's being pressed, then you've got yourself a pretty interesting and general interface.
going magnetic would be a bad idea for the display tho...
...finger
1) Magnets don't stick to screens.
2) Average magnets don't have much effect on LCDs.
The story reads "The magnetic knobs can be removed and repositioned immediately by picking them up and moving to a different part of screen. A unique sensing x/y matrix is attached to the rear of the laptop screen to detect the control's position. The distance of the sensor from the screen can also be detected."
Magnets will ruin your CRTs, for sure. I remember putting a TV in my car trunk and having the (giant) speaker magnets ruin the TV with a distance of about 5 inches between them and the TV. As for LCDs, I don't think the magnets will ruin the screen, as it appears here.
@generally
The magnet probably is attracted to the sensor plate -behind- the screen. See for yourself if a magnet will stick to your LCD. I did before posting, just to be sure.
And if you need a sensor plate, there's no way you can put that behind a CRT's face. Not saying that very powerful magnets can't affect LCDs, however, since we are talking about EM fields, after all, but you wouldn't get the kind of electron accumulation you do with a CRT.
Magnets will ruin LCDs. Not as easily as CRTs, but I work at a computer store and have seen it happen to a couple demo units.
I had this exact same idea bout a month ago after thinking about the limitations of current midi controllers and touch screens. After giving it some thought I came to the conclusion that a modular system such as this would be a bit of a pain since you'd constantly have to rebuild control surfaces. You could group controls together whilst still maintaining a lot of versatiility but you'd lose more real estate and it's still not ideal. Tactile displays seem like a nice solution but tbh I think the fact that midi automation and control is still 7bit is an issue that has to be addressed before this.
Anyone thought of how cool this would be on Flight Simulator?
No more expensive custom made panels!
My thoughts exactly!
I don't understand how it works.
Did he modifiy is Latitude X1 with a touch screen or this is a wireless knob that send back data to the software.
There is something weird here.
Hmm, you get it set up all nicely then some bozo comes and rearranges all your knobs.
I like having my knobs rearranged.
To me, this is a pretty darn cool idea!
just dont forget to take them off when you close the lid, it could end up being expensive.
he could simply have rehearsed that video - he is yanking our chains here
If this were to work with standard desktop displays, this could totally revolutionize studio control surfaces. Think about it- you could build the exact control surface you want with an LCD display, a piece of software, and some stick-on knobs.. Awesome.
Problem #1: where do you get a large desktop touchscreen?
It doesn't need a touchscreen, it works with some special "matrix on the backside of a typical laptop display". Wether this can be retrofixed to any display or if it needs to be build in tightly is not clear.
You get them at "Large Desktop Touchscreens 'R US"
Unless you want to switch to a different screen (Mixer, arranger, virtual instrument, etc.) and the knobs become useless (Mixer/arranger) or lose their relative position when you load a plugin or instrument.
The idea is clever, it's just not practical at all
The knobs in the picture are way smaller than the one in the video. If the knobs need to be as large as the on in the video it's taking a big hit on your screen space. If they can make the small ones work this could be realy cool.
Mine goes to ELEVEN!
this would be great for the Nintendo DS 2. Could you imagine getting 2 full screens and then just sticking the buttons in.... it would be awesome for emulation. A guy can dream.
Mine goes to ELEVEN!!
Something like this already exists on a high-end commercial digital audio console...The knobs are integrated into the touchscreen though...
http://www.studer.ch/pdf/brochures/(1)%20Vista5%20SR%20brochure_lowres.pdf
The idea of being able to apply physical controls directly to on-screen virtual ones is very cool. I hope it finds its way into a commercial product that doesn't totally suck.
This is the future. 8)
This reminds me of the "Reactable" used by Björk which is insane!
There was a research project called 'VoodooIO' (Pin&Play), which did very similar and in a way more advanced stuff but instead of magnets they used pins (which obviously wouldn't go down well with LCD screens). They've got some cool videos up on their site:
http://eis.comp.lancs.ac.uk/voodooio/
OMG! It's Asgard technology – straight out of SG-1 3rd season
I've seen something like this when they did that blogger retreat thing at MS Surface. Pretty cool stuff. They used the knob for the app itself, but the idea seems to be the same. Link below. The knob is used at around 4:15 into the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2Jzr4lplmU
Hmm - physical knob to turn a virtual knob emulating a physical knob.
I'LL be impressed when we have a virtual physical knob that turns a virtual knob emulating a physical knob.
That's the ONLY way to adjust your volume.
Think enough recursion and we can get a virutal physical virtual physical virtual physical knob to control the weather? The theory is that God and physics don't want to count the damn loops and just say "sure - you turn the knob, i'll turn up the heat."
Simple idea yet mind blowing. It's gonna cost $$$$ for sure.
Want for pro-tools and adobe audition very very badly!!!
oh, and of course keyboard synthesizer programs...
Now kiddies...
Make sure you don't close the laptop with the knobs still attached :)
(I remember the days working at CompUSA and selling laptop screen replacement plans like crazy, simply by saying, "If you leave your pen on your keyboard, close the laptop, and break the screen, we'll replace it." Ahh... easy money.)
This is awesome, but what about automation? The controls would probably be useless for most advanced studios, unless they were motorized to reflect the changes of levels in the software.
I note that the video doesn't actually show a knob being attached to or removed from the screen. That's supposed to be a key element of this idea. All the video shows is a display that appears to react to a knob being turned.
I also have doubts about whether a magnetic device would be able to be attached through 5 mm of LCD, backlight and housing while being sufficiently secure to act as a viable operational control. A magnet strong enough to stick that well over such a gap might need to be so strong that if you placed it directly onto a metal sheet, it would stick so hard that you would have problems removing it.
Crank up ur pRon!
Just wait until you close your laptop lid after forgetting to remove one of these...
Anyone ever heard of a general MIDI controller?
I think it would be possible to create this completely without having the x/y matrix on the back.
Using a knob with integrated light sensor and proper software one could flash/scan the screen and determine the position of the knob.
Now, that would be great :)
Really usefull and handy :-)
I wish to view some gears like this : http://www.arturia.com/evolution/smf/index.php?topic=2108.msg6695#msg6695
Really usefull and handy :-)
I wish to view some gears like this : http://www.arturia.com/evolution/smf/index.php?topic=2108.msg6695#msg6695