Alps Electric's "non-contact touchpad" needs no touch

When looking to dazzle your friends with humorous examples of oxymorons, make sure you insert Alps Electric's new "Non-Contact Touchpad" right after "military intelligence" and before "jumbo shrimp" (that last one always gets 'em laughing). Alps' prototype (shown without the hand model after the break) breaks linguistic and laptop convention by letting you control your machine with fingers waving about an inch above it. Right now it seems to have limited precision, with one sensor on either side of a rather more traditional pad picking up digits as they move from left to right or in a circle. So, touch-free retouching of images in Photoshop isn't quite possible yet, but with a few years of refinements anything is possible.

[omegamale @ Sep 26th 2008 9:52AM]

nice idea and would be cool to see it being implemented elsewhere, but the ergonomics (or non in this case) i can't help but find would be bad for your hand, using a trackpad can put a strain on the pack of your hand, but at least it gets to rest on the track pad... i am being a twat though eh? i mean you re obviously allowed to put your finger down at some point... or are you?

maybe the force you to hover forever above it until your hand hurts or you die.

i want a peripheral multi touch track pad... why the fuck has that not happened yet?

can anyone else go look for it in apples patents? i can't be bothered

[Duke @ Sep 26th 2008 11:32AM]

The ergonomics don't seem well thought out to me at all. If I was to sit with my hand bent up at the wrist to use this or hover my hand up in the aid the whole time, it would become a bit uncomfortable pretty fast. Nice idea, but I don't think it will be comfortable to use.

[linuxamp @ Sep 26th 2008 12:36PM]

As you said, it would be nice to see this elsewhere. I can think of one such place that'd be great, public terminals such as ATM machines. Imagine the reduction in germ transmission.

[Benhur @ Sep 26th 2008 9:52AM]

Maybe Alps Electric's "non-contact touchpad" needs no touch,
but we sure need it.

[tom @ Sep 26th 2008 10:12AM]

indeed...we need to use "the force"

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Sep 26th 2008 9:55AM]

Easier to use a normal touchpad plus it hurts holding your finger over the top but also the mouse would keep moving while typing seems pointless to me.

[allislost @ Sep 26th 2008 9:56AM]

Nice, what a terribly wonderful innovation. I wouldn't mind having this during my glamorous camping trip.

[El Taco @ Sep 26th 2008 11:34PM]

is it terribly wonderful, or wonderfully terrible?

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Sep 26th 2008 9:58AM]

The ergonomics of this thing is bad for the hand and my hand always hangs over the touchpad while i type or browse. Pointless in my eyes.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Sep 26th 2008 9:59AM]

Sorry for the double post

[omegamale @ Sep 26th 2008 10:03AM]

yeah but but but but...

think of what else it might bring...

cross multi touch with this let them grow and we'l get into all sorts of minority report shit.

that is the reason why we are all here non?

[whowhatme @ Sep 26th 2008 4:16PM]

helloooooooo carpal tunnel syndrome

[ben @ Sep 26th 2008 10:08AM]

It reminds me of the way my Wacom Bamboo works (once properly configured of course :-) ), where the pen moves the mouse when its tip is just above the tablet and left-clicks when its tip touches the tablet. This works decently enough with a pen, but holding your hand up all the time is the same thing that killed Light Pens. Using a pen to interact with your computer-awesome. Holding a pen up to your monitor all the time-tiring.

However, this sort of thing could be useful if you had dirty hands.

[Christian Martin @ Sep 26th 2008 10:16AM]

So I move my hand to take a drink of beer and wipe the raid? Smooth.

[Rhino @ Sep 26th 2008 10:20AM]

I Love Alps, it is much better than the Synaptise

[icepop4who @ Sep 26th 2008 10:32AM]

a built-in removable mouse, like those expresscard remotes. that's what we really need.

[Mario @ Sep 26th 2008 12:38PM]

You mean the Mogo Mouse?

http://www.newtonperipherals.com/mogo_mouseX54pro.html

[Big Sam @ Sep 26th 2008 10:55AM]

So this makes it even easier to accidentally move the mouse all over the screen? I hate touchpads, give me a real mouse.

[mjt @ Sep 26th 2008 10:56AM]

I want to say this is the touchpad seen on the leaked [faked?] image of a MacBook yesterday.

[kali4 @ Sep 26th 2008 11:06AM]

On topic: It is in it's infancy, and as such is little more than a gimmick. However, it could lead the way to a minority report style interface which would be really cool.

Off topic but regarding the millitary intelligence and jumbo shrimp comment:

Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways? Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together? When something is transported by land it is a shipment, and when something is transported by ship it is cargo. Are a little giant and a large dwarf the same size? If a cow laughed, would milk come out of her nose?

[Xenoterranos @ Sep 26th 2008 4:04PM]

Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
Parkways are defined as having a broad landscaped swath of ground between the two directional roads, which is where the "park" in parkway comes from - as in public park (actually from the old french "parc" meaning enclosure") Driveways where originally meant exactly as that - ways which you drove on to get to your garage.

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
Again, an English derivation of a french word, in this case "appartere" which means "to separate", as in separate rooms within a greater building.

When something is transported by land it is a shipment, and when something is transported by ship it is cargo.
All transported goods are shipments and all items on a transporting vessel are cargo, regardless or mode of transportation (where items being shipped are concerned).

Are a little giant and a large dwarf the same size?
The answer depends on circumstance, context, and various other undefined variables.

If a cow laughed, would milk come out of her nose?
Only if the cow had been drinking milk, and hadn't finished swallowing the milk upon laughing.

-Summer Glau
(www.xkcd.com)

[MaXxed @ Sep 26th 2008 11:18AM]

Hand model? That is one fubar'ed pinky.

[lol @ Sep 26th 2008 11:29AM]

You know, this would be kinda cool if it worked for a tablet PC. No contact, no LCD leaks!

Or...it could end up like U force....

[gagan @ Sep 26th 2008 12:00PM]

with the newer capacitive touch surfaces (such as in this mousepad), all you really need to do is turn up the sensitivity in effect changing your 'touchpad' to a 'proximity pad' (think your 'touch' completes the other end of the capacitor plate)
the technology has always been there, its just a matter of being able to control it with precision.
-g-

[theCardinal @ Sep 26th 2008 12:06PM]

Is this going to increase the incidence of accidental touches? That gets REALLY annoying.

[AlphaTeam @ Sep 26th 2008 1:05PM]

Now we just need a holographic projector and a sculpted chassis.

[Grouch @ Sep 26th 2008 1:14PM]

I already have a "non-contact touchpad". We've been married for 2 years.








Thanks, I'll be here all week.

[vdogg89 @ Sep 26th 2008 1:26PM]

and the point of this is what? I already hate using the trackpad, let alone holding my hand an inch above it. ugh

[CW @ Sep 26th 2008 1:53PM]

The best oxymoron has to be 'Microsoft Works'

[Jason @ Sep 26th 2008 2:09PM]

I have enough problems typing on my Macbook Pro where my hand barely touches the touchpad and does something with the mouse. Now these guys have designed-in this annoyance??

[keithwwalker @ Sep 26th 2008 2:47PM]

This will revolutionize fapping in unforeseen ways....

[philos.bonacci @ Sep 26th 2008 5:11PM]

Neat!

[Grapefruitrebel @ Sep 26th 2008 7:04PM]

The article fails to really say the application of this device. It's more for gesture controls like the toshiba thing except with out the stupid camera. you use it to flip pages and go back and forward in web browsers with the swipe of the hand across the pad (hopefully the keyboard in the future)

[Unknown @ Sep 26th 2008 7:38PM]

Is it just me, or is that enter/return key unnecessarily big?

[Stuart @ Sep 26th 2008 9:45PM]

as someone mentioned earlier about accidental touches.... has anyone thought about what its going to be like typing on one of those where your arm occasionally starts hovering over the mouse pad????

[w00t @ Sep 27th 2008 12:19PM]

Oh my lord, you can't touch this.

[Owen @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:16AM]

When improperly configured, the touchpad on my Dell XPSM1330 allows me to move the cursor with my finger up to 1cm above it -- what's the big deal here?

Unless of course this is a very first, very small step towards finger/hand gesture-based computer control.