Quanta demos Optical Touch system with Windows 7
By Donald Melanson 
posted Dec 11th 2008 3:57PM
posted Dec 11th 2008 3:57PM
It's no secret that multi-touch support is one of the stand-out features of Windows 7, and it's also no surprise that plenty of companies seem eager to get in on the action, one of the latest which is uber-manufacturer Quanta Computer. Somewhat uniquely, however, Quanta is ditching the usual capacitive and resistive touch panels in favor of its new Optical Touch system, which simply uses two cameras placed at the top corners of the screen. That, Quanta says, still lets you perform all the usual multi-touch gestures in the same manner and, depending on the size of the display, could be significantly cheaper than a traditional touchscreen. Details on any actual products using the technology are expectedly a bit light at the moment, but Quanta says it plans to start mass production "soon," with some releases presumably planned to coincide with Windows 7's debut.
[Via jkOnTheRun]
[Via jkOnTheRun]
first
you're so cool
no you have to write in all capitals with exclamation marks like
FIRST!!!!1111one
Jay needs to change his name to Gay.
Looking back all you're posts are pointless.
It would be cool if the used the cameras to track your finger and move the cursor, and then use the capacitive touch tech to capture any "clicks" or multiple touches.
What happens if your fingers are in the top corners of the screen? Will it block touch reception for the rest of the screen?
If your fingers are in the top corners of the screen, what else would you be doing (with additional hands?) that you'd want the sensors to capture?
Craig, sometimes things a better left unknown.
Ok, let me put this another way. Let's say you're making a triangle in the middle of the screen: two fingers making a point each and a thumb making a point below them. How do the cameras detect the thumb with the fingers obscuring it?
On the flip side, you could use a paintbrush on such a screen as it could detect the width of the point pressed against it.
your avatar is krang in one of the cellphone things right?
that...
is...
awesome!
Using the "touchscreen" without perfect lighting is supposed to be very difficult. I also don't think that it would be anywhere near useful because of how inaccurate it would be. I remember last time I was at Best Buy I had trouble resizing windows and selecting smaller buttons on a touchscreen. Using a camera instead must be even more difficult.
So was mine.
so a guy standing over your shoulder with a laser pointer could run full screen porn right in front of his mom? i'm sold.
correction: your mom.
I don't see how this will work. How accurately could two cameras actually track your finger placement on a screen? To the nearest 1,000 square pixels?
It would be neat if there was a 3rd camera that faced out toward the user, so you could make "air gestures."
Getting closer to the screen to touch it seems less useful on a desktop (a little more so on a laptop) considering you have to move further toward the screen than it would take to reach the mouse or keyboard.
If you could make gestures from your chair, though, that would be awesome. Especially if you could have the computer "record" a gesture and map it to some sort of Windows (or game) function.
e.g:
"Billy! Why do you keep giving me the finger?"
"No, Mom! I'm just closing browser windows!"
This idea would be useful for stores that want to implement a windows or web based POS system. POS systems don't need to be very precise, this would save on having to find extra space in the till area for a mouse and keyboard, and it's cost effective.
For a home or office user it's, as you say, a bit pointless.
3rd camera? Isn't that just a webcam?
no video? :(
Watch this video for an example of what there talking. Its really cool.
http://www.jkontherun.com/2008/11/webcam-software.html
I would like this on my 47" LCD HD TV connected to Vista MediaCenter.
that would be kool
"it's also no surprise that plenty of companies seem eager to get in on the action"
Well, no surprise with a well documented and generously available SDK.
Spiro?
Yeah, cheaper for them to make, but they'll still charge you nearly the same for the capability...
I trust they'd have the sense not to market this if it wasn't as accurate as a regular touchscreen.
doesn't hp's consumer touch screen offerings use technology as such?
Yes it (HP's Touchsmart) uses something similar (though it may use infrared LEDs I'm not sure)
What happens if you dont have fingers?
Voice recognition. Or, don't use a computer. Anyone without fingers here?
hp already has this technology onto the touchsmart pc's
1) Regardless of the specific operating system, multi-touch operation doesn't make sense on a desktop or traditional laptop. Just like a traditional one-finger touchscreen, it is completely impractical to operate a computer with your arms stretched out in front of you. I don't understand how this is going to be taken advantage of in Windows 7 other than on specialized tablet devices. The limited form of multi-touch on OSX only works because it uses an enhanced laptop trackpad. Does anyone have any more info about windows 7 multi-touch and how they plan to use it?
2) Even in a tablet/mini-tablet form-factor, I'm not yet convinced that a multi-touch based interface based on a new UI paradigm will entirely replace the traditional cursor and mouse. Don't get me wrong, I think Microsoft's Surface and the iPhone UI is certainly innovative and exciting, building on Jeff Han's stuff and other conceptual work done like the "Bumptop" desktop, but most of what I've seen presented with multi-touch was really only applicable to a handful of applications (navigating maps, manipulating 3D models, interacting with photos) and entertainment purposes. I'm sure there are many working feverishly on this, but I've yet to even see an early concept prototype of a practical general-purpose interface based on multi-touch gestures.
3) I know many on Engadget hate Apple, but I'm not a fanboy and I don't hate Microsoft. But the reality is that Microsoft has never really excelled at UI work, especially when you get outside the tried and true methods. The new Office "ribbon" and some of the new Windows 7 desktop features look nice, but then again look at the implementation of window switching in Apple's Expose versus Vista "Flip3D". I just don't believe Microsoft is capable of creating a truly functional, intuitive, next-generation UI paradigm based upon multi-touch. Apple has many flaws and problems --- I'll be the first one to point them out -- but one thing they do well is interface design, especially developing new features. I'm sure they are cooking up something in their labs right now with regards to all of this that will take OSX multi-touch to a totally new level. I'm not naive enough to think Apple and MS (not to mention Canonical) could actually work together on a new interface standard, but It sure would help computing. I don't want to see two completely different gesture-based interfaces.. it will confuse the hell out of all of us. If nothing else, MS should take the backseat on this one and let Apple and other third parties create the new spec and just the basics of it.
Burp