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UK commits to full fiber broadband by 2033
Earlier this year, the UK hit its goal of broadband speeds of over 24 Mbps for 95 percent of users. Now, the country has a new goal. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has set an ambitious goal for full-fiber (rather than copper) broadband for every home across the UK by the year 2033, with 15 million homes connected by 2025. The government also wants to give the majority of the population access to 5G cellular coverage.
Microsoft multitouch mouse prototypes in action (video)
This week the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) went down in British Columbia, and among all the pointing and the clicking the gang from Engadget Japanese were on hand to take a closer look at those wild and wooly multitouch mouse prototypes that Microsoft Research has been working on. Apparently Orb's hemispheric touch sensor supports a healthy helping of gestures (just the thing for point-and-shoot gaming), while Arty and FTIR certainly seem to know when you're clicking something. These are just prototypes, of course, but the video provides a fun look at some of the things you might soon see integrated into your computing experience. Peep for yourself after the break.%Gallery-74960%[Via Engadget Japanese]
Microsoft Research shows off multitouch mouse prototypes
Rather odd timing, given some recent developments in the Apple camp, but Microsoft Research has just surfaced some of its incredibly wild multitouch mouse prototypes. Each one uses a different touch detection method, and at first glance all five seem to fly in the face of regular ergonomics. The craziest two are probably "Arty," which has two articulated arms to cradle your thumb and index finger, with each pad housing its own optical sensor for mission-critical pinching gestures, and "Side Mouse" which is button free and actually detects finger touches in the table immediately in front of the palm rest. Of course, there's plenty of crazy in the FTIR, Orb Mouse and Cap Mouse (pictured), which rely on an internal camera, orb-housed IR camera and capacitive detection, respectively. Of course, there's no word on when these might actually see the light of day, but it should be quite obvious that Apple's not the only game in town thinking about this stuff. Check out the utterly enlightening video of these things in action after the break. %Gallery-74670%
Struktable multitouch table is as fun to use as it is to say
Sure, you can make a multi-touch table out of just about anything these days, but it still always pretty impressive when a project comes together as nicely as this so-called Struktable multi-touch surface built by the folks at Struk Design Studio. Like some other rigs, this one relies on the FTIR (or frustrated total internal reflection) effect, which makes use of some infrared LEDs placed around the edge of the display, and a mirror and a short-throw projector to actually display the image on the surface. As you can see in the video after the break, that works remarkably well, with the table able to support up to eight simultaneous users and "unlimited finger touches" at the same time (we'll let you do the math there). What's more, while the table is one of a kind at the moment, the folks at Struk are more than happy to build more if the price is right, or simply rent out the one they have if you're on a bit more of a budget.[Thanks, Thomas H]
