multitouch
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Toshiba reveals 7-inch LCD with integrated touch, just 1mm thick
Remember all that happy fuss over Samsung's Super AMOLED display, and its more recent Super AMOLED Plus? Well now Toshiba Mobile Display has jealously stepped into the ring with its own answer to the world's demand for thinner, lighter and less reflective LCDs. Its as-yet-unnamed technology seeks improvement in a roughly similar way to Super AMOLED, by fusing the capacitive touch layer and LCD. In so doing, Toshiba claims it can produce an integrated panel just 1mm thick, which it says is less than half the thickness of a conventional LCD touchscreen. Weight is also halved and surface reflection is reduced by 10 percent. Alas, Toshiba's press release does not provide the stats we really want -- a head-to-head comparison with Samsung's best efforts or, say, the Synaptics ClearPad 3250 which also melds touch layer and LCD. And perhaps to avoid confrontation in the mobile arena, Toshiba emphasizes the use of its technology in "vehicle-mounted" and "industrial" applications. Seems we will have to wait until the screen is exhibited in LA next month before we know whether it is really up for a fight.
Ideum releases MT55 HD multitouch table for hands-on museum-goers (video)
Ideum has taken the wraps off the latest addition to its growing family of multitouch tables, with the release of the MT55. The table, originally announced late last month, boasts a handsome 55-inch LCD display, which beams LED-backlit graphics in 1920×1080 HD resolution. As with its predecessors, the MT55's screen comes coated with a 5-mm layer of sturdy, tempered glass, and sits atop a pedestal made of aluminum and steel. Within that pedestal lurks an Intel Quad Core i7 CPU, with 4GB of RAM, a pair of 250GB SATA hard drives, and an NVIDIA Quadro 600 video card. The system runs Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, and comes packed with GestureWorks multitouch software for both Flash and Flex. The MT55 also features an integrated Bose Audio system, and can support up to 32 simultaneous touchpoints -- not quite as many as the 50 that its 100-inch counterpart can handle, but definitely enough to enthrall any class of 4th-graders on a field trip to the museum. Stroll on past the break to see the full press release and a video of the MT55 in action.
MTbiggie is a DIY Surface for the masses (video)
Practical or not, there is no denying the nerd-gasm inducing wow factor of Microsoft's Surface. Of course, Surface is expensive -- like, unless you're a millionaire you're probably not buying one for personal use expensive. There are some DIY solutions out there, but designer and developer Seth Sandler has come up with the cheapest and easiest yet. Built from about $400 worth of material (some of which you probably have lying about your home / apartment / dungeon), the MTbiggie brings big-screen multitouch to the masses. Like the hacker's previous homebrew multitouch device, the MTmini, there's nothing particularly difficult to find here. All you need is a couple of chairs, a mirror, a projector, an infrared webcam (which you can easily hack together with some old film negatives and cardboard), a big sheet of paper and an equally large piece of clear acrylic. Just set it all up according to the instructions in the video below and in no time you be finger painting and playing Angry Birds on a screen that dwarfs your iPad -- and possibly your kitchen table, too.
LG shows off 47-inch transparent IPS LCD with multitouch and Full HD resolution (video)
Where Samsung leads, LG inevitably follows (and vice versa, of course). The Korean electronic arms race has now heated up by an extra few degrees with LG's demo of a crazy new 47-inch display that packs in everything a geek could want: IPS technology, 1080p resolution, multitouch, and some good old transparency... just because. This so-called Window Display is sadly intended for advertisers and other digital signage proprietors, meaning that even if it wasn't still at the concept stage, it likely wouldn't be populating living rooms anyway. Ah well, so long as LG makes sure John Anderton and the precrime unit get one, we'll be happy. Video for the rest of us after the break.
Flatbed scanner becomes multitouch panel in five-fingered DIY documentary (video)
Few things do a better job at decimating desktop real estate than a bulky old flatbed scanner. Skinnier replacements are cheap these days, but what's one to do with the old ones? An enterprising hacker who goes by the handle Sprite_tm, the same bloke who brought us a knock-operated door, has managed to create a multitouch panel out of his. He extracted the single-line CCD and mounted that below the display. He then attached five LEDs above it to shine light down. When his finger touches the screen it casts a shadow on the CCD and, with a little (probably a lot) of custom software he's able to triangulate the position of the touch. The system even works with multiple fingers, though we're guessing should they overlap vertically the system might get a little finicky. Check out a demo below and then click on through the source link for one heck of a detailed how-to.
Evoluce announces 46-inch display with built-in 3D sensors
We've already seen Evoluce toy around with Kinect hacks and multitouch displays, and it's now inevitably managed to combine the two. The company has just announced its new I-Voluce display, which fuses a standard 46-inch LCD with some integrated "3D depth sensing technology" that's apparently not simply a repurposed Kinect -- exact details on it are light, but it will apparently work from a distance of up to 13 feet, and it relies on Windows 7 for an OS. That's obviously not designed for home use, but Evoluce does see plenty of potential for the displays in public spaces like museums, as well as in office and education environments. For those that prefer a more hands-on approach, Evoluce also has an updated version of its Surface-style multitouch table, the Evoluce Two, which also packs 3D depth sensing technology and can accommodate up to six users simultaneously. Of course, neither exactly come cheap -- look for prices to start at €3,995, or about $5,600.
US Army developing mobile apps for soldiers in the field
According to Computerworld, US soldiers may soon be carrying some familiar devices into battle: iPhones and iPads. Two military contractors, Harris and Intelligent Software Solutions (ISS), are building applications for the iPhone, iPad and the Android platform that will assist soldiers deployed to the battlefield. Harris' forthcoming app for the iPad and other tablet devices enables a soldier on the ground to remotely control the video cameras on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in order to gather intelligence on enemy movements. Soldiers would use multi-touch gestures to transmit commands from the iPad to the aircraft without putting themselves in harm's way. Video from the UAV, along with time and location data, would be sent to the app and transmitted to military decision-makers located anywhere in the world. ISS is close to field testing apps for iPhone and Android phones that keep soldiers -- especially those first arriving in a war zone -- informed about nearby fighting, bombings and arrests. The app keeps troops on the ground well prepared by superimposing battlefield data, sent wirelessly from a command center, onto a map of each soldier's surroundings. According to both developers, the new apps promise to drive down equipment and training costs for the military. For example, many soldiers are already veteran iOS or Android users and will likely understand the new software with less training than would be required for custom-built gear. Additionally, the new software runs on comparatively inexpensive, off-the-shelf devices priced at US$300 to $800 each. "They [the military] are using $10,000 wireless receivers today, but with mobile devices costing $400, those can be ruggedized [with cases and other gear] and the costs are minimal," said John Delay, director of architectures for emerging business at Harris, which will demonstrate its new app at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas next month. Unfortunately, even an encased iPad or iPhone may more frequently succumb to the rigors of battle. But Rob Rogers, vice president of national systems for ISS, is optimistic that the Army will still be able to save money. "We've seen first-hand what happens to a laptop used in the desert [in combat], so there's going to be some problem with ... these [mobile consumer] devices that are fairly inexpensive and almost disposable," said Rogers. "But if they break or get dust in them, you don't have to shell out a lot to replace them." He adds, "It's a trade-off. I would anticipate a lot of broken Androids and iPhones." The loss of a few good iDevices is a small price to pay for solutions that safely provide soldiers with the intelligence they need to make life-saving decisions. [via Engadget]
How to enable multitasking gestures in iOS 4.3
Unfortunately we knew that iOS 4.3 wouldn't end up shipping with those nifty four- and five-finger gestures, but what we didn't know was how easy it'd be to enable them. That's right, getting even more touchy-feely with your brand new iPad 2 is just a few clicks and a 4.5GB download (to your Mac) away -- if you've got $5 for Xcode of course. Sound intriguing? Click past the break for the info.
Acer touch pad / Media Center remote surfaces at the FCC
We've already seen Acer include a sleek little touch pad / remote with its Revo 100 in the UK, and it looks like one could also be coming to the US, as a similar device known only as the RMTP-S1Q has now passed through the FCC. Like the one we've seen previously, this device can be used as a multitouch trackpad to control your Media Center PC or, at the press of a button, be turned into a standard remote complete with illuminated capacitive controls. Of course, this being the FCC, there isn't any indication of an actual release, and the user manual included with the filing is actually from a company called Suyin Connector, so it would seem to be a rebadge job -- though there is a big Acer logo on the back of the device itself.
VMware brings virtual machines to iPad
Earlier today, VMware, Inc. announced the availability of VMware View Client for iPad on Apple's App Store. The free app enables enterprise and government users to securely access their virtual desktops, applications and data from anywhere with wireless internet access. Unlike VNC clients that allow iPad users to remotely control a personal computer, VMware's solution displays the desktop of a virtual machine hosted online. VMware View Client for iPad uses a combination of on-screen input devices and multi-touch gestures to offer precise, intuitive controls for interacting with a PC interface on the iPad. The app fully supports Wi-Fi or 3G connections. VMware View allows IT departments to centrally host virtual machines that can be accessed from a variety of computing devices. VMware's press release cites Children's Hospital Central California's use of VMware View as an example. "Recently, the Hospital has deployed VMware View to provide secure, 'Follow-me Desktops,' that move from room-to-room with clinicians and staff as they treat their patients." VMware View Client for iPad simply and securely connects users to their virtual machines centrally hosted with the VMware View solution. The iPad app is offered as a free companion to VMware's enterprise-class virtual computing platform. "Now all of us iPad aficionados can use our iPads to access our desktops and get an awesome user experience without giving IT a heart attack about security," says VMware's official blog.
Optical tweezers manipulate microscopic objects using an iPad, raw brainpower (video)
Okay, so maybe the whole brainpower thing is a distant second to the iPad itself, but still -- being a rocket scientist probably doesn't hurt when manipulating microscopic objects via a multitouch display. That's the kind of setup that students and boffins alike have going at England's University of Bristol, where iTweezers are being used to control a tiny rod about 300 nanometers wide, amongst other things. Essentially, the iPad is able to display what's under a microscope via a wireless display transfer, and then, touch points are converted into laser movements that are used to handle objects that are far smaller than those visible particles clogging up your left ear right now. All told, a user can select up to 11 different objects, and in theory, the iPad could enable scientists to do this remotely. Hey, we're all about new and improved ways to telework. Vid's below, kiddos.
3M's 32-inch display with 10-finger multitouch steps out at CeBIT (video)
Though there are bigger multitouch screens out there -- and ones that can support more simultaneous touch points -- 3M's brand new C3266PW is the company's largest, said to be suited for industrial-strength installations with multiple simultaneous users (the company is quick to note that the ultra-wide 178-degree viewing angle along both axes is great for that, since folks can crowd around and start touching). They demoed the new unit here at CeBIT in two ways: three of them in a row on a "cascade table" with one high, one slanted, and one low, and another separate unit mounted on a solo kiosk at roughly eye level. The table's set up as a multi-display Windows box running a tech demo with maps, images, and videos that can be flicked between screens, pinched, and zoomed; the kiosk, meanwhile, is running a rudimentary flight simulator designed to demonstrate all ten points of multitouch capability at once with a finger-based aircraft control scheme (not the way you'd really design a game, but a good demo nonetheless). 3M points out that touch response -- the amount of time that it takes the screen to actually recognize that it's been touched -- is an issue in the industry, and it's not something that we really think about as users; if a gesture is laggy, we just assume the processor isn't up to the task or the software sucks. The C3266PW is rated at a relatively brisk 12ms recognition time, and while the company has other products with even quicker ratings, we definitely noticed the lack of lag as we played around (of course, the computers powering the displays have plenty to do with that). We've come to associate good capacitive displays with glossy glass and resistive with matte, but that's really not a fair assessment -- this one has a non-glare "anti-stiction coating" that, as its name implies, makes your fingers glide like butter. It might not be great for a phone, but it works well for a display of this size that's probably going to be used in public installations and potentially handled by hundreds of people a day. Follow the break for 3M's press release and video of both setups! %Gallery-118148%
Motorola Atrix 4G Laptop Dock demo units have multitouch trackpads -- but yours doesn't
We were crestfallen to discover that our review unit of the Laptop Dock for Moto's Atrix 4G didn't have multitouch capability, making scrolling a rather old-fashioned affair -- and considering that a desktop build of Firefox figures prominently into Webtop's capabilities, scrolling is something you'll be doing quite a bit of. Well, this is where it gets weird: a number of people on xda-developers are discussing the fact that in-store demo units of the Laptop Dock seem to mysteriously have multitouch added in, and at least one poster notes that a Motorola rep that visited his local store a while back had multitouch working as well. That means one of three things: either these units are physically different hardware, they're running a prerelease firmware upgrade, or they've got a feature that was pulled at the last minute, possibly because it didn't work very well. Unfortunately, the latter seems plausible because Motorola has indicated to us that the Laptop Dock's hardware doesn't support multitouch and it's not something we can expect to be added in down the road -- but we can hope. [Thanks, Caleb]
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's multitouch update rolling out now; X8, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro getting ANT+ support soon
That pinch-to-zoom update for the Xperia X10 that Japanese customers got an early lead on is now rolling out around the globe according to a new blog post from the boys and girls at Sony Ericsson. That may not be the most interesting part, though: they're also chatting up a future firmware update that'll enable ANT+ support on the Xperia X8, X10 Mini, and X10 Mini Pro, a capability baked into the chipsets on those devices that Sony Ericsson hadn't previously exploited. Theoretically, that means that heart rate monitors and other wearable fitness gear -- a market where ANT+ has really blossomed -- could connect directly to your phone rather than passing through a computer with an ANT+ dongle first, perfect for analyzing jogs on the go. Of course, workout technology is always more appealing than the workout itself... but if you can solve that problem, Sony Ericsson, let us know. You can find us on the couch over there. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iOS 4.3 beta multitasking gestures demonstrated on iPhone, look like a handful (video)
If you came along for our most recent podcast you heard us discussing some of the new features uncovered in the iOS 4.3 beta, including multitouch gestures for multitasking like four-finger swipes to go between apps. They seem hugely useful on an iPad but, on an iPhone, sounded like a bit of a handful. Now we have some video evidence, with Antoni Nygaard managing to get them working on his iPhone, along with the lock/mute switch toggle as well. Given these multitouch gestures aren't coming to the iPad (yet) we're guessing it won't be hitting the iPhone either, but we can always hope. Update: BGR has a little more information on this, including some screenshots if the video below isn't good enough for ya. [Thanks, Crazyyen]
iPhone rumor two-pack: multitasking gestures and MobileMe Photo Streams? (Update: those pics are real)
Looks like the iPad might not have an exclusive on those new "multitasking" gestures unearthed in the latest iOS 4.3 beta, because BGR's got some shots up of an purported internal build that seem to indicate Cupertino intends to push them down to the iPhone line as well. Now, there are a couple of obvious red flags here -- using "four or five fingers" sounds pretty unreasonable for a 3.5-inch display, though it'd certainly tie in with recent rumors that Apple's turning sour on the physical Home button and might indicate that the complete redesign we're hearing about could include a slightly larger display. Of course, it could also indicate that this is really early software with the wrong (read: iPad) wording -- but at any rate, we could definitely see the benefit of, say, a two-finger gesture to swipe between apps. Now, on to part two: 9to5 Mac seems to have unearthed traces in the iOS 4.3 beta of a new feature called "Photo Streams" that seems to be -- you guessed it -- a way to share continuous streams of photos with friends you approve, presumably through MobileMe (which would fit in nicely with the Find my Friends stuff). Alone, that's not worth $99 a year -- plenty of other services offer similar functionality -- but we wouldn't be surprised if this were bundled in with a bunch of MobileMe refreshes this year. Update: We just received an interesting tidbit of information on the above pic (and others that BGR has its hands on). According to sources, after the iPhone 4 barroom debacle, Apple made significant changes to how it keeps track of -- and identifies to third parties -- its devices. Namely, the company began adding clauses to screens on the phones which read "Confidential and Proprietary, if found, please contact..." followed by a 408 number (that's Cupertino, of course). This prevents any misunderstanding from parties who may come across these devices. So what does it all mean? Well, not much, save that it seems these photos we're viewing are in fact the real deal... which means gestures may be headed to your iPhone. Intrigue!
Customizing a Magic Trackpad using BetterTouchTool
We took a look at BetterTouchTool last year and covered its usage with a Magic Mouse and a MacBook trackpad. As you would expect, this versatile utility can also be used to customize the functionality of the Magic Trackpad. The app features over 50 multi-touch gestures including taps, clicks and swipes for one to five fingers. Each gesture can be customized to perform a wide range of predefined actions or assigned to a custom desktop shortcut. You can even create your own gestures and add button commands (fn, ctrl, command, option) to each one. Besides quadrupling the number of available gestures, these buttons can also be used to prevent accidental activation of a gesture by requiring you to deliberately press a button prior to clicking, tapping or swiping. Gestures and actions are the focus of this application, but it has a few neat tricks up its sleeve that let you snap and resize a window like Windows 7 as well as control the trackpad speed and sensitivity. Combine this tool with a Magic Trackpad and you can supercharge the input methods for your iMac, Mac Pro or Mac mini. If you have a Magic Mouse and a Magic Trackpad, you may want to check out BetterTouchTool. The unique ability of this application to assign actions to tappable hotspots around the perimeter of the trackpad lets you duplicate the functionality of the Magic Mouse and keep all the multi-touch gesture goodness that comes with the Magic Trackpad. BetterTouchTool is available for free from boastr.net. [Via Macworld]
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10's pinch-to-zoom update starts rolling out this week -- in Japan
It's been a long, tough, road, but customers of Sony Ericsson's beleaguered X10 have some reason to celebrate this week as the Japanese version offered on NTT DoCoMo becomes the first to get an official multitouch software upgrade. Mind you, it's not a full, perfect multitouch implementation: pinch-to-zoom is actually the only gesture supported, which means rotation (in Maps, for example) won't work, and it's also not guaranteed to work in all multitouch-capable third-party apps. Furthermore, Sony Ericsson isn't yet talking about when the update will be available for other markets -- and considering the phased Android 2.1 rollout, some markets could be in for a bit of a wait. [Thanks, Vidit]
MultiTouch Ltd's 46-inch panel accepts unlimited touch inputs, we put it to the test (video hands-on)
MultiTouch Ltd has been at this IR-based multitouch thing since 2007 and it's hit CES in force this week. Sure, the current 46-inch model requires 12 inches of depth -- in order to provide sufficient space for the infrared cameras embedded in its back to capture the whole, ahem, surface -- but having unlimited touch inputs is always a wildly impressive sight. We put one of the displays to the test by exploiting a nearby crowd and slapping down a good 40+ fingers on it, all of which were recognized. To be perfectly fair, the IR cameras don't seem to have a very flat recognition area and many of our inputs were picked up from over an inch from the screen. The 46-incher under hand is already available for a totally affordable $17,000, provides full HD resolution, and hooks up to a PC for processing of input. See our thoroughly intensive test on video after the break. %Gallery-113460%
Crapgadget CES, round one: the Magic MousePad returns!
We stumbled upon Fortrend here at CES expecting to find their existing Magic MousePad and were shocked to discover something else entirely: a new and improved Magic MousePad! You'll still get the same multitouch trackpad / keypad combo as before, but it now comes with a "high texture" glass surface, and "friendlier" design available in a range of colors. We're sure you'll agree those changes make all the difference. %Gallery-113357%
