multi-touch
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Apple applies for multi-touch mouse patent
Ooo la la, what's this? Apple filed a patent application for a "mouse with optical sensing surface." That's right, a multi-touch mouse building upon the touch-sensitive mouse patent app we've already seen from Apple. This beast would allow for a buttonless pointing device which could sense the position of your digits for a myriad of gestural and positional control. Whether this is a patent to safeguard a brewing idea or actual product in the pipeilne is anybody's guess. Surely this filing, along with those for a backside touch interface and touch sensitive bezel give us a clue as to Apple's product mindset. Multi-touch MacBook touchpads anyone?[Via PC Joint]
Microsoft R&D shows off multi-touch laptop
You can't help but think that the term multi-touch is a shoe-in for Buzzword of the Year, as we've seen it on tables, in a regular old phone, and now we're getting it on a laptop -- at least according to Microsoft's on10 (blogging about the company's Cambridge-based research team). Whatever the case may be, this multi-touch screen looks pretty damn good to us (kind of like Surface on a notebook), and the technology they're using (off-the-shelf laptop, IR sensors) gives us the impression that these might come to market sooner rather than later. Be sure to watch the video after the break.[Via istartedsomething, thanks Mitchel T]
Is HTC's "major announcement" a multi-touch device?
The plot is starting to thicken ahead of HTC's press conference on the fifth of June -- and as we suggested before, it appears that the company does indeed have its sights set on stealing some of Apple's thunder. As far as consumer electronics releases go, the crown for the month of June had pretty much been handed to the iPhone; yeah, pretty much any Apple release is considered something of a landmark event, but one of the iPhone's big draws is its support for multi-touch. So what if HTC were to announce its own multi-touch device -- based on the lovely Elf -- just days before the iPhone's release? A little deflating for Apple, yeah? Smartphone Thoughts is reporting that HTC plans to introduce said device at its June 5th event with the intention of releasing it quickly on a global scale. Microsoft was showing off its "Shift" touch-based interface not long ago; while we don't know that the rumored HTC device uses it, this could all work out very nicely indeed considering the cozy relationship Microsoft and HTC enjoy.
Microsoft to unveil 'PlayTable' gesture-based interface at D?
If ZDnet staple Mary Jo Foley (or more specifically, her source) is right, we may be seeing Microsoft take the next big step in device interaction at tomorrow's D: All Things Digital Conference, with the perennial Redmond watcher predicting an official unveiling of the company's PlayTable / Project Milan multi-touch, gesture-based input technology. PlayTable, which combines elements we've seen in the iPhone, from NYU's Jeff Han, in various prototype devices, and from Microsoft's own, recently-demo'ed DigiDesk, is envisioned as a multi-purpose interface that can be employed in anything from a DAP (Zune) to a cellphone (WinMo handsets) to a gaming console (Xbox) -- so it's no coincidence that the project is being developed by the same Mobile and Entertainment division that's also in charge of these categories. All in all, tomorrow promises to be a big day: not only is Palm making a potentially breakthrough announcement, and the faces of Apple and Microsoft scheduled to appear together on the same stage, but we may also get to witness computing history to boot; man, if we had real jobs, we'd be calling in sick in a heartbeat. [Via Scobleizer]
DAHAN T&S' 120-inch multi-touch panel
In case you missed it, everyone, and we mean everyone is talking multi-touch these days. Few however, can muster a multi-touch panel in sizes of 100-inches and beyond. The panel above is a 120-inch, rear-projection jobbie from DAHAN T&S offering a 10ms repsonse. Sure, it's running XP at the moment, but with some of the wildest speculation citing a new multi-touch interface as the reason for Leopard's delay, who knows what that panel might be sporting come October.
XM patents multi-finger touchscreen -- no, not that one
While the "multi-touch" iPhone screen might lay claim to a nice collection of patents, XM is putting a whole new spin on the term with its "multi-finger" patent for satellite radio operation. The patent, which was filed in June '05 and published this last December, describes "context sensitive data input using finger or fingerprint recognition." Basically, instead of having to look at the device and punch the correct part of the screen with your finger, the screen can tell which finger you're tapping it with, and perform an operation based on whatever finger you're using. As illustrated above -- we use the term "illustrated" loosely here, it looks like the picture was drawn by a blind man using his feet -- the thumb could automatically mute the device, while other fingers coud be set to preset channels or to menu shortcuts. We're not super clear on the actual method of finger recognition, or if there is one as of yet, but the system will supposedly be able to work with multiple users, each with unique fingerprints and particular shortcut setups. Naturally, no word on when this might hit devices.
Build your own multi-touch table
NYU may have been the first to put the mouthful that is frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) to use in a multi-touch display, but it's not the only one experimenting with the curiously-named technology, with the folks at tinker.it building a setup of their own and explaining how they did it. As the video after the break shows, the end result is slightly less polished than NYU's device, but it puts on an impressive light show nonetheless, tracking your fingers' movement in a suitably hypnotic fashion. While tinker.it's guide doesn't exactly hold your hand though the process, those with the necessary skills should be able to build their own rig relatively easily, with some coffee table excess seemingly only a few more steps away for those with the carpentry skills to match.[Via MAKE:Blog]
Some iPhone touchscreen roots 'splained by FingerWorks inventors
It really wouldn't be an Apple device if it didn't involve the practical kidnapping of a pair of inventors and secretive technology buyouts, and the iPhone seems to be no exception. Word is getting out of John Elias and Wayne Westerman, co-founders of FingerWorks, who were struggling to keep their dream of gesture-operated gadgetry alive when the company suddenly closed up shop a year and a half ago. Few doubt Apple snapped up the pair, and with interesting touchscreen abilities of the iPhone, it looks like it found a use for the men in some secretive underground laboratory. The greatest admission so far to such cahoots comes from Westerman, who said recently: "The one difference that's actually quite significant is the iPhone is a display with the multi-touch, and the FingerWorks was just an opaque surface. That's all I'm going to say there. There's definite similarities, but Apple's definitely taken it another step by having it on a display." FingerWorks devices, which included a no-touch keyboard, mouse-less mouse pad and other multi-touch devices, have developed a bit of a cult following from "Fingerfans" on the internets, with people paying upwards of $1,500 for a FingerWorks keyboard that originally sold for $250. The ergonomics and usability enhancements of FingerWorks devices appeal to a small niche right now, but the hope is that Apple won't be limiting its implementation of these technologies to just the iPhone -- of course, nobody is holding their breath.[Thanks, Geezer]
Warcraft III on a multi-touch tabletop screen
Apparently multi-touch interfaces are what's hot in research circles this year: first NYU, then Nintendo, and now Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs. And let's be honest, Mitsubishi really throws down here. Unsatisfied with pretty light shows or boring diagrams, they're out to research that ancient query, "But what about the games?" Using Warcraft III, the fellas at MERL are able to use voice and touch to control the game in what appears to be an impressively seamless fashion. Shhh! Be quiet! Listen! Can you hear them? That's the sound of millions of DS gamers screaming, "We think touching is good too! We have a microphone!" What ever happened to Blizzard asking about interest in DS ports months ago?[Thanks, Jon Choo]
