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Turkish company builds 65-inch Android 'tablet' with Honeycomb, 1080p support (video)
Want Honeycomb on your TV? You can take your chances with a Google TV-enabled set from Sony, or you can get the full Android experience by adding a connected tablet to your HD mix -- if Istanbul-based Ardic gets its solution out the door, at least. The Turkish company's prototype uses a 10-inch Android Honeycomb-based tablet to power a 65-inch LCD with 1080p support for basic gestures, like pinch and zoom. The display currently has two touch sensors, but a version with four sensors is on the way, which will bring multi-touch support. The tablet is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 SoC, and includes 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash memory, dual cameras, HDMI, USB, microSD and 3G and WiFi connectivity. A dock enables instant connectivity with the OEM TV, including HDMI for video and audio, and USB for touch input (a wireless version is in the works as well). The devs customized Android to support 1080p output, and it appears to work quite seamlessly, as you'll see in the embedded video. And this isn't simply another goofy demo or proof of concept -- the Turkish company is in talks with education and enterprise customers and hopes to bring this setup to production as a more power- and cost-efficient interactive whiteboard alternative. The company eventually hopes to offer displays in a variety of sizes, that will all be powered by a pocketable device, such as a smartphone, but watch in wonder as the 65-inch proto we have today struts its stuff in the video after the break.
SMART adds "touch recognition" to SMART Boards
We've seen some interesting large-scale multitouch products from SMART lately, but the company's bread and butter is still the SMART Board interactive whiteboard, and it's getting a neat little upgrade today: touch recognition. The board now intelligently senses the difference between a pen and your hand, so you can draw with the pen, move objects with your finger, and erase with the palm of your hand all at the same time -- no tool switching required. It's just a little tweak, sure, but it's the stuff like this that's going to make touch a viable primary interface -- check out a video after the break.
M-11 copyboard prints directly and saves to USB dongles
We know that the sight of a whiteboard is an instant turn off for all the bored execs and high schoolers out there, but if you're still reading, you'll be happy to know that the Plus Vision M-11 copyboard is more than just a mere whiteboard (although it's not quite a smartboard). Using an optical sensor placed behind a large white screen, the M-11 can output your boss or teacher's scribbly diagrams to either an attached laser printer or an included USB drive, all without the extra cost of a computer and projector. Needless to say, the M-11's print outs will likely just result in even more ignored paperwork than usual, but thanks to the cost saving nature of the system, at least you'll be able to miss assignments and deadlines safe in the knowledge that your school or business saved money setting them. A printer must be purchased separately, although it seems as if the Plus Vision guys have seen fit to make it work with more than one specific model. The USB port dumps PNG files straight to any type of flash drive, so anyone in the room with a personal dongle should be able to pick up your ideas in a relatively hassle free manner. We're seeing the M-11 selling online for around $1,700, and it should be available now.[Via EverythingUSB]
