Ever heard of a small company called
Light Blue Optics? Probably not. But it's companies like LBO that make events like CES truly worthwhile. Tucked away in a small suite overshadowed by the million dollar spreads owned by industry giants like Samsung and Sony is a tiny startup looking to attract the attention of OEMs with its full-color holographic laser projection technology. The Windows CE-powered Light Touch represents the company's very first effort to create an interactive projector that allows users to interact with the displayed image as they would a modern touchscreen display. Despite our skepticism, we came away suitably surprised -- impressed even. Granted, our hands-on was performed in a lowly-lit room on par with the lighting you might find in a fine restaurant. Still, the 15 lumens were effective at lighting videos and the touch sensitivity was far more accurate than we expected -- so good that we were quickly typing out phrases on the QWERTY with few mistakes (admittedly taking a reasonable amount of care to strike the right "key"). The projector only supports single-touch at the moment though multi-touch is just a software tweak away. See the video after the break and prepare to be suitably amazed at watching a laser projector create a touchscreen display.
posted January 7th 2010 8:29AM
Thanks for bringing relevant discussion to the party keyboard.
Can anyone explain the potential uses for such a device? I could see if it was extremely portable, and maybe that is the goal, but beyond that I'm a bit perplexed. (Not that being perplexed is an unusual state for me...)
@TheLoveDr
i'm sure there are countless great uses for this, but all i can think right now is that this would be amazing for playing board games with my friends when on vacation or on the road.
@TheLoveDr
baby steps. Imagine this technology in your smartphone of choice, 5 years from now. A multicore 2ghz + processor, you plop it on the table, and whammo, you've laptop/tablet/slate like functionality/visibility in a device that fits in your shirt pocket.
but, of course, you're going to need some 3d thrown in to make it worthwhile....
@TheLoveDr
With this, I can use the computer anywhere. No need to haul around bulky laptops. Also, I can see an interaction of this device with a standard notebook. Simply write with a pencil on paper, and this thing will be able to read it, store it...
@hiroo I happen to love that idea.... That would be perfect for me!
@TheLoveDr
If you struggle to think of a use for a particular new tech, put yourself in the porn industry's view point.
@TheLoveDr
Think of all the companies that spend millions on touchscreen kiosks, and all the companies that wish they could afford to do the same. Imagine sitting down at your local pub/restaurant/casino - each table has a set of projectors that you can use to order a beer, watch a game, play some trivia, gamble, or play a game between your friends. All without having to worry about spilling your beer or dropping your glass mug on a $1000 touchscreen device. This is a giant step in drunk-proofing the world, and yet making it a happier place for drunks to be in. I, for one, salute them.
@TheLoveDr I imagine it installed into desk lights. Turn it on and suddenly your desk is a large touch screen. It could be great for widgets and calendars, etc. Think of your paper desk calendar being replaced by this. Swiping motions would go to other screens, showing widgets of stocks, sports, news, weather, traffic, etc. Android would be the perfect OS in my opinion for such uses.
damn good
@avis
Yeah but where the hell is my hologram Obi-Wan?!
http://web.archive.org/web/20040403224630/www.engadget.com/entry/6447880567722089/
@Oli D Progress
@keyboard
Go away Morron!
I wonder if it could work projected onto something less "flat" like my lunch
@MVMNT
It's not polite to play with your food, you know...
Hell yhea, this could be usefull! to bad the projector quality isn't good
I like this! A little too big, maybe?
Finally, no more searching for that pesky G-Spot. Set this thing up on the end of the bed and press her G-Spot all night long. Thanks Light Blue Optics' Light Touch, you saved my marriage!
@keyboard lol,would it be ironic if ya'll email got spammed?....INTO OBLIVION
HAHAHAAHHA
This is the kind of stuff that i wanna see from CES, not dozens of TV's.
Absolutely amazing. That's innovation!
Anyone else have a problem with the free Google player Engadget uses? In Chrome, the video freezes every 5 seconds as a new ad is trying to launch in the bottom of the video and the only way to get it started again is to click to the right of the marker which then skips parts of the video. Frustrating.
@MFPrice
Clear Flash cache. It happens in Firefox and IE too.
I'm sitting in my well lit office here in London. It's 13:58 on a relatively gloomy day, yet it's still bright out. This thing would be near useless, and it's winter. I can't imagine the sheer amount of fail once summer hits.
After seeing the Wii Remote hacked to turn any projector into a multi-touch device, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to put together a product.
I think it is verrrrrry gooooooood!
Sorry to barge in with an actual relevant question but I noticed on the spec sheet that the device has a rated lifetime of 10,000 hours. I'm curious as to what component would have the limited lifetime. The laser perhaps?
@keyboard
Why the Pianos?!
@keyboard
I can even cheaper more basic and novel "internet cafe's" style systems set up in hotel info desk or creating customer apps for checkout systems. I looks pretty cool assuming they can further remove the remaining latency I would maybe pick one up for the hell of it.
Will be nice for restaurants
@TareG
Not just restaurants. It would be really useful in a place like Cafe Nero and Starbucks, if you haven't got a laptop to hand.
Wow! This is really cool!
Not to long ago I saw some episode about a wine bar that uses something like this. Basically that have an interactive menu projected onto the bar top. You can then pick your wine, take a glass to the correct dispenser and fill up. It was pretty gimmicky, but I can see it catching on for normal menus and such.
internet kiosk of the future.
Careful, Light Blue. One false move and you may actually make pico projectors useful.
This needs to be combined with a slate-type tablet PC as an option for typing instead of the on screen keyboard.
Also, where are the trolls who usually slam Windows CE for being a "10 year old OS"? Sigh...
What if I spill a coffee or something on it?
I am actually impressed. I remember some input device like this years back with just a red laser to type you input. I guess this is the same company, evolving it with full display capabilities. Really cool, I can see a future for such a device.
And for the Trolls, WindowsCE is alive and well running most of the devices you use day to day. Think of all your current GPS devices. Microsoft is just not making noise about it anymore. I guess they realise indeed it is too old a technology, and waiting to dazzle us with WinMobile 7.
@Infinity "Think of all your current GPS devices." er... think again. Both TomTom and Garmin use Linux. I'm pretty sure they have most of the market share. Very few people use WindowsCE day to day. I can't think of one I've ever used, thank goodness. MS aren't talking about it because nobody wants it. Why pay loads to MS for no flexibility, when you can develop with Linux and do what you like, for no cost. I happen to know that it is crap to work with, as told to me by a developer friend (for a company that use it in industrial machines). These guys are bonkers using CE. Lets see it with Android and decent brightness. I'd buy it then.
You know how dirty the screen surface/wall will get?
@Infinity - nope, diff company.
I don't really see this being used in a residential setting unless for the aforementioned boardgames scenario but I could easily see this being great if they can scale up to larger screen sizes. The problem I see with the current screen size is what is the benefit of having this over an actual tablet/slate device? The price points at this size are basically the same or eventually will be. Scale this up to a 65" short throw setup and thats where this makes the most sense.
Even better thought...Give me 4 of these underneath a coffee table that could be edge blended together and you could have a surface like touch table that could easily be moved, be low powered, fairly priced, and each quadrant could be used independently or together in one large interface.
I want one
I can see a market for this in some sort of domestic cooking setting? it cood be built into the ceiling and could project down onto the surface. it wouldn't take up space and could be a very useful replacement for a laptop in the kitchen or one of those recipe tablet thingies?
I'm in love
Add VGA support, and let it work as a USB mouse and I'm sold.
BTW: Composite sucks.
Why yes, I have heard of them. I read about their laser-powered "touchscreen" projector on a site called Engadget a day or so ago.
I also saw this unit at CES, here is my short video of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UBuhsMWTrA
Thanks,
Fabian.