TactileDisplay
Latest
Google patents smart watch with flip-up display that could reveal everyday objects' secrets
It looks like Google has considered transferring ideas from Project Glass over to your wrist by patenting a smart watch with a transparent, flip-up touchscreen. If such a device ever came off the USPTO papers, it would present notifications and other info transmitted from your smartphone at a glance, like many, many others now on the market. However, Mountain View's added a new twist when you'd flip up its bezel -- at that point, it's claimed that the watch could channel a plethora of other Google apps, like Gmail, Goggles, and Maps. Of course, you'd be able to privately view messages inside the bezel, but since the display would also be transparent, you could see through it to landmarks or object around you. According to the patent, you could then be given directions based on GPS coordinates and the buildings "seen" by the watch, while a Goggles-like implementation would be able to identify smaller items in the display. That would let the search giant throw ads or other data about the product your way, giving you the info you need to snap it up -- and likely not hurting Google's bottom line.
Tactus Technology prototype Android tablet shows off shapeshifting screen at SID 2012 (video)
Typing with thumbs on glass can often prove to be as fruitful as talking to an actual wall. That is to say, both are an exercise in frustration. Yet, with smartphone adoption continuing to climb, that method of touchscreen input is only going to become more pervasive. Good thing, then, that companies like Tactus Technology are working on a scifi-seeming haptic solution that should catapult the wireless industry into true innovation and bring back some much needed tactile feedback. To spur this, the company's crafted a prototype Android slate in conjunction with Touch Revolution, shown off at this week's SID 2012, that shapeshifts from flatscreen to physical button layout and back as needed. The screen, which would reportedly add no extra thickness to future tablet or phone displays, makes use of microfluidic tech to make those disappearing UIs possible. So, forget about quad-cores and the 2GB RAM spec race, this is where those next-gen flagships ought to be headed. Click on past the break to marvel at a demo of this dynamic interface in action.
NEC's tactile touchscreen nudges at the future (video)
A touchscreen's fatal flaw is its lack of feedback: imagine the satisfaction if you could feel those Angry Birds as they flew across the screen. NEC and the Tokyo Institute of Technology wanted a simpler solution to tactile displays than Senseg's electrostatic-field based tech. Instead, this device uses a wire (yup) anchored on each corner of the display -- when force is shown on screen, it jerks the screen in the corresponding direction. You can see it in action after the break, accompanied by the restful tones of Diginfo's narrator. If there's a better way to start a week, we don't wanna know about it.
Rumor mill: Will the new iPad have a tactile display?
Remember Senseg's tactile touchscreen displays? Well, last December the company showed off a screen that used an electrostatic field to simulate friction and textures on the glass. Such technology was a couple of years away from being commercially viable, but there's a tiny glimmer of a chance it might be the new killer iPad feature. Pocket-lint spoke to a company rep who cryptically said that the company wasn't making any statements until "after Apple's announcement." Why would they issue any statement tied to today's Apple news? Could it connect with a remark made back in June 2011 to Trusted Reviews, that Senseg had partnered with a "certain tablet maker based in Cupertino?" Maybe that line in Apple's invitation to today's event is another clue: "We have something you really have to see. And Touch." After all, Siri was announced at the "Let's talk iPhone" event, so it wouldn't be the first time the company places vague hints under our noses. Still, we have but a few hours left to wait until we really know what's coming, so join us for the live announcement later today.
Senseg's tactile display gets demoed on a tablet, products anticipated within 24 months
We've seen Senseg's tactile display technology demoed on a few different devices in the past, but CNET has now gotten a quick look of the company's latest tech on a tablet, along with some additional word on its future. As with previous prototypes, the screen doesn't rely on any moving parts as some other tactile displays do, but instead employs an electrostatic field-based system that allows different parts of the screen to produce varying degrees of friction. As Senseg notes, that opens up a number of interesting possibilities for gaming, as well as other applications where you may not always want to look at the screen. Of course, that tablet is still very much a prototype, but Senseg's Dave Rice says that he's "optimistic" we'll see actual products using it "within the next year," although he notes that could extend to 24 months. See the video after the break or at the source link below.
Researchers show off flexible, band-aid-sized tactile display
We've seen tactile displays of all shapes and sizes, but none quite like this latest creation from a group of researchers at Korea's Sungkyunkwan University and the University of Nevada, which promises to be at your disposal whenever you need it. That's possible thanks to the electroactive polymer material the display is based on, which consists of eight layers of tiny actuator films that have been sprayed with electrodes in a specific pattern, allowing the skin to be stimulated without any additional electromechanical transmission. In addition to making it possible to wrap the display around your finger like a band-aid, that also makes the system extremely power efficient and, apparently, cost effective and easy to manufacture. As with other tactile displays, the researchers say this one could be especially useful as a braille display for the blind, although they don't see any shortage of other potential applications, with them foreseeing it being used in everything from virtual keyboards to tele-surgical gloves.
ELIA Life to roll out tactile displays for the visually impaired
A project that saw a prototype form some five years back is finally nearing commercialization, as ELIA Life Technology has recently been licensed to bring a tactile graphic display device and fingertip graphic reader to market. Originally developed by NIST researchers, the aforementioned screen enables individuals to feel an array of images on a reusable surface by raising around 3,600 actuator points into a certain pattern, each of which can be sent electronically to the reader. Separately, a finger-based device utilizes 100 minuscule pins that can be activated as a person scans a given surface, which enables the pins to move across one's skin as it "translates" the text / image / etc. Regrettably, a concrete release date wasn't mentioned, but judging by the looks of it, it shouldn't be long now before it's widely available to those interested.[Via Coolest-Gadgets]
