N-trig demos advanced N-act multitouch gestures, coming to laptops and tablets later this year
By Donald Melanson 
posted May 13th 2010 7:26AM
posted May 13th 2010 7:26AM
N-trig has made a few multitouch advances in the past, and it's now trying to push things a bit further once again with its new so-called N-act hands-on gesture vocabulary, which promises to open up a new range of four-fingered, two-handed multitouch gestures. That includes new tricks like a three-finger side sweep gesture to scroll between windows, a three-fingered tap to display all open windows (just hold to cycle through them), and the ability to select something by making a rectangle with four fingers, to name but a few options. What's more, N-trig says that at least some OEMs have already committed to shipping laptops and tablets using the technology later this year (Windows 7 only), although it's unsurprisingly staying mum on any specific companies or products. Head on past the break for a quick demo video.
N-trig Introduces N-act Hands-On Gesture Vocabulary for True Multi-Touch User Experience
New Multi-Touch Language Reflects Latest Advancements in Pen and Touch Technology
Kfar Saba, Israel and Austin, Texas - May 12th, 2010 - N-trig, providers of the DuoSense® solution combining pen and capacitive true multi-touch in a single device, today announces the availability of the N-trig N-actTM Hands-on® gesture vocabulary for two plus one, three and four finger multi-touch. The N-act gesture vocabulary enhances the overall user experience and together with the pen functionality enables the user to utilize new multi-touch gestures to perform actions directly on the screen whether using their finger or the pen. To see a video of the N-act gesture vocabulary go to YouTube.
In order to further drive the mass adoption of a touch interface, N-trig is now taking standard 2-finger multi-touch gestures to the next level, expanding the multi-touch capabilities to include the use of four or more fingers in combination with a pen. This development is opening up a world of new possibilities for the development of different types of computing devices and the creation of new software applications, including advanced graphics packages, video games, CAD programs, and much more.
"While multi-touch features on touch technologies have created a new market for cutting edge applications. The Windows 7 platform has set the groundwork for multi-touch to be adopted on PCs. The worldwide market value of multi-touch module will reach about $2 billion in 2010," said Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, Director of Display Technologies at DisplaySearch.
The N-act gesture set demonstrates the continued evolution of the multi-touch marketplace to provide end-users with a more natural, flexible and Hands-on computing® experience. The multi-touch N-act Hands-on gesture vocabulary is comprised of a wide variety of movements and actions using direct on-screen finger manipulations including:
N-act2+1: place two fingers on the screen and using a third finger a context sensitive menu will be displayed.
N-act3Tap: tap three fingers once simultaneously on the screen to display all currently open windows in a 3D carousel formation.
N-act3DoubleTap: tap three fingers twice simultaneously on the screen to minimize all windows, and display your desktop.
N-act4Select: place four fingers in a square on the screen to select an item and zoom in.
"Touch technology has advanced significantly over the last couple of years and with the concept of multi-touch continuing to evolve, new standards are being set for how we interact with our computing devices," said Amichai Ben-David, CEO, N-trig. "Building on the N-act vocabulary, the natural next step is to include the simultaneous use of the pen functionality in conjunction with true multi-touch capabilities, enabling pen and multi-touch to become a standard expectation and triggering the development of more touch -enabled software, greatly expanding and enhancing the user experience."
A video demo of the N-trig N-act true multi-touch gestures is available on YouTube.
About N-trig
N-trig is revolutionizing the way people interact with computers by providing the industry's first dual-mode pen and touch input device. N-trig's DuoSense technology is the only combined pen, touch, and multi-touch interface for today's advanced computing world. N-trig's DuoSense dual-mode digitizer uses both pen and zero-pressure capacitive touch to provide a true Hands-on computing® experience for mobile computers and other digital input products over a single device. DuoSense enables greater mobility and usability in the next generation of computing devices and notebook PCs, enabling new market opportunities for OEMs and ODMs to introduce computer products which offer a more intuitive and interactive experience. N-trig's digitizers are easily integratable, support any type of LCD, and keep devices slim and light. N-trig's technology can be implemented in a broad range of products from small notebooks to large format LCDs and can support a variety of applications including mobile, notebooks, convertible and all-in-one computing, gaming, entertainment, multimedia and more. Founded in 1999, N‑trig is headquartered in Kfar Saba, Israel with offices in Austin, TX and Taipei, Taiwan. For more information, please visit .
New Multi-Touch Language Reflects Latest Advancements in Pen and Touch Technology
Kfar Saba, Israel and Austin, Texas - May 12th, 2010 - N-trig, providers of the DuoSense® solution combining pen and capacitive true multi-touch in a single device, today announces the availability of the N-trig N-actTM Hands-on® gesture vocabulary for two plus one, three and four finger multi-touch. The N-act gesture vocabulary enhances the overall user experience and together with the pen functionality enables the user to utilize new multi-touch gestures to perform actions directly on the screen whether using their finger or the pen. To see a video of the N-act gesture vocabulary go to YouTube.
In order to further drive the mass adoption of a touch interface, N-trig is now taking standard 2-finger multi-touch gestures to the next level, expanding the multi-touch capabilities to include the use of four or more fingers in combination with a pen. This development is opening up a world of new possibilities for the development of different types of computing devices and the creation of new software applications, including advanced graphics packages, video games, CAD programs, and much more.
"While multi-touch features on touch technologies have created a new market for cutting edge applications. The Windows 7 platform has set the groundwork for multi-touch to be adopted on PCs. The worldwide market value of multi-touch module will reach about $2 billion in 2010," said Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, Director of Display Technologies at DisplaySearch.
The N-act gesture set demonstrates the continued evolution of the multi-touch marketplace to provide end-users with a more natural, flexible and Hands-on computing® experience. The multi-touch N-act Hands-on gesture vocabulary is comprised of a wide variety of movements and actions using direct on-screen finger manipulations including:
N-act2+1: place two fingers on the screen and using a third finger a context sensitive menu will be displayed.
N-act3Tap: tap three fingers once simultaneously on the screen to display all currently open windows in a 3D carousel formation.
N-act3DoubleTap: tap three fingers twice simultaneously on the screen to minimize all windows, and display your desktop.
N-act4Select: place four fingers in a square on the screen to select an item and zoom in.
"Touch technology has advanced significantly over the last couple of years and with the concept of multi-touch continuing to evolve, new standards are being set for how we interact with our computing devices," said Amichai Ben-David, CEO, N-trig. "Building on the N-act vocabulary, the natural next step is to include the simultaneous use of the pen functionality in conjunction with true multi-touch capabilities, enabling pen and multi-touch to become a standard expectation and triggering the development of more touch -enabled software, greatly expanding and enhancing the user experience."
A video demo of the N-trig N-act true multi-touch gestures is available on YouTube.
About N-trig
N-trig is revolutionizing the way people interact with computers by providing the industry's first dual-mode pen and touch input device. N-trig's DuoSense technology is the only combined pen, touch, and multi-touch interface for today's advanced computing world. N-trig's DuoSense dual-mode digitizer uses both pen and zero-pressure capacitive touch to provide a true Hands-on computing® experience for mobile computers and other digital input products over a single device. DuoSense enables greater mobility and usability in the next generation of computing devices and notebook PCs, enabling new market opportunities for OEMs and ODMs to introduce computer products which offer a more intuitive and interactive experience. N-trig's digitizers are easily integratable, support any type of LCD, and keep devices slim and light. N-trig's technology can be implemented in a broad range of products from small notebooks to large format LCDs and can support a variety of applications including mobile, notebooks, convertible and all-in-one computing, gaming, entertainment, multimedia and more. Founded in 1999, N‑trig is headquartered in Kfar Saba, Israel with offices in Austin, TX and Taipei, Taiwan. For more information, please visit .
This will work great with porn.
@eminisp. You dog
@eminisp Talk about a good fingering.
looks really awkward to be honest, i'd rather have multitouch controls like that on a trackpad than manipulate them on a screen. though i suppose if you're looking at slate devices then it's better than conventional ui navigation for full windows. then again you shouldn't be using full windows on a slate, it's not built around touch at all.
@safe travels Yep, I can only see 2 hand gestures on devices like Microsoft Surface. We usually hold slates and monitors (with crappy stand) .
@safe travels
Really? Tell that to the Asus R2h, Archos 9, Latitude XT and XT2 along with all the other HP owners. I've sued plenty and as soon as you increase the DPI to 125%, everything is easy to open, close, whatever.
Are you, however, simply repeating what web pages state or have you used Windows 7 at length on a tablet??
@Excalibur
lol, should be 'seen' not sued
I really don't see how such gestures are an improvement. A mouse is still far superior and precise than trying to use multiple fingers on a screen to do one thing.
Laptops aren't smart phones where you have no choice but to use such gestures.
@kabloink
Mice won't disappear any time soon, but the stylus might replace them eventually. Soon, most people will adopt a mobile device as their primary computing device. They won't use a mouse much of the time, because a mouse is impractical while walking down the street or down an aisle at Best Buy. The mobile devices will dock to larger keyboards and displays and a mouse if you want a mouse. The two-handed, QWERTY keyboard seems safe enough, but mice seem vulnerable, because people will quickly adopt the stylus for precision input on touch screens while mobile, and using a stylus is more natural than using a mouse, particularly if you're new to the both.
This looks quite N-ticing.
Please don't tell me that N-trig has patented the unimaginably innovative, four fingered rectangle. I never would have figured that one out.
I need to write some trivial software on a multi-touch device today. Where's my lawyer?
Coming soon.... touchscreen pianos
@xdreamer to late =)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/virtuoso-piano-free-2-hd/id304075989?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
@creiij
Crap.
I meant good touch screen pianos.
I had a touch screen piano on my Handspring back in '99 but... it sucked
Ok.
Please.
Could the people who keep saying, "WIndows 7 is not good for touch" please put themselves into two camps:
A: People that are repeating what they've heard or
B: People that spent ten seconds using Win7 with touch.
Windows 7 has a wealth of superb Touch enabled options, from a resize-able keyboard that works wonders on a Dell XT2, to increasing the DPI to 125% to make menus and windows options very easy to 'touch'.
Seriously, there's so much misinformation that it makes me sick to think that people can be so blind.
@Excalibur I use Windows 7. I use it on my Gateway tablet. It sucks for touch as much as Windows Mobile sucks for touch. Period. End of story. The UI for Windows 7 is still a Windows UI. Great for your classic mouse/keyboard/stylus interface. But for touch it sucks. Too small. And all the various apps you can get in Windows 7 are going to have varying levels of ease of use with touch. Have you tried Word 2010 with a touch screen? A stylus is fine. Touch? GTFO.
No Android and WebOS are designed from the ground up to be finger friendly. The UI is finger friendly. The apps are finger friendly. This is where MS fails. Now if they brought Windows Phone 7 over to a tablet or the Zune UI....lets talk. But Windows? Think square peg in a round hole.
@John Doe
I'll repeat: " increasing the DPI to 125% to make menus and windows options very easy to 'touch'."
As in larger and easier to 'touch'. Try it now...
@John Doe
P.s. Touch on the HD2 is fine if you ask me. No trouble without a stylus, none.
@John Doe I'm worried about the sheer size and mass of your stumps.. er fingers? If that is what you still call them.
Windows Mobile worked perfectly fine for me on touch with my normal human sized fingers, without a stylus on my Cingular 8525, all the way up to my stylus free HD2.
As for touch Windows 7, works great on my x200 tablet.
Not sure what you are doing, but just to check, have you tried actually /touching/ the screen?
@Excalibur
I agree. I hear that Win7 is worthless on a tablet because touch sucks so bad. Normally from Apple users.
I've got an HP touchsmart TX2 and at 125% DPI, everything works pretty nicely. I tell the Apple zealots that I surfed for an hour on via finger, and it's like, they think I'm hallucinating or something.
I have been also using it to surf powerpoints in Office 2003 while walking to class before a test. Works fine.
Somewhere out there Apple has released their drop lawyers. Queue the flight of the bumblebees music.
Damn, I should of bought that FHD Multi-touch screen for my W501...
Time to save up for that touchscreen monitor.
I'm just not sure, what they've achieved looks well honed, I can't deny that. However, I don't think touch and especially multi-touch is an especially good idea on a pivoting laptop screen. Plus, it'll never be possible to circumvent the problem that skin secretes sweat and sheds cells, it is therefore never going to be ideal to touch the the surface of something you are viewing.
I just can't overcome nearly three decades of shooing fingers away from my monitor when some tries to touch it.
This is all just so wrong...quick pass me the microfiber--and lots of them.
Maybe N-Trig should figure out the basics of touch screens before attempting something like this. Ive had a Dell Latitude XT2 for a year now and the N-Trig digitizer has been replaced 3 times. It continually bounces around on its own, continually closing apps on me