Random Accesses

The functions of previously separate gadgets like cameras, phones, and music players have come together into single devices in recent years. But juggling all of those functions in one product with multiple personalities is not simple, and confusing interfaces plague many big-selling gadgets.

But a new prototype that is able to predict what function its user wants from the way it is manipulated, shows a more intuitive way to tackle the problem.

They have created a "bar of soap" device, with an LCD screen front and rear. It contains a three-axis accelerometer to measure its motion in 3D, and 72 sensors across its surface to track the position of the user's fingers.

The researchers tested their prototype on 13 users who were asked to pick up several times, holding it each time in turn as if it were a remote control, PDA, camera, games controller, or mobile phone. By analysing the output from the sensors, the team spotted patterns in the way the different users held the gadget, and their grip gave clues about how they expected the device to perform.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16617-gadget-reads-users-minds-from-their-grip.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

The field of haptics - integrating computing and the sense of touch - has been around for some time but has required gloves or mechanical devices to impart a sense of feeling.

Now, a team of Japanese researchers has developed a system that uses focused ultrasound to do the job. Its inventors may soon commercialise the approach.

Sound is a pressure wave, meaning that as the inaudible sound waves from each of the transducers interfere, they can create a focal point that is perceived as a solid object.

The team's prototype system includes a camera which tracks the position of a user's hand and shifts the output from the transducers to move the focus around with the hand. The result is a feeling of tracing the edge or surface of the virtual object.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7593444.stm

MultiTouch , a company specializing in, you guessed it, multi-touch technology, today launched the world’s first modular multi-touch LCD screen, which will allow owners to create screen tables and walls to their desired size.

Dubbed the MultiTouch Cell, each LCD screen unit is available in both 32- and 46-inch sizes and offers Full HD capability. The Cells can be positioned in portrait or landscape modes and can be turned into huge multi-touch screens or a multi-touch coffee table for those who don’t need something so grandiose.

The MultiTouch Cell is the company’s response to Microsoft’s Touchwall, which we wrote about earlier this year. Touchwall uses three infrared lasers that scan a surface, and a camera, which feeds information back to Microsoft’s Plex software after something breaks through the laser line. In contrast, the MultiTouch Cell uses an LCD display and according to the company, bests current projector-based systems by improving durability — MultiTouch claims users will get 50,000 hours of use compared to 3,000 hours for projector-based offerings — as well as improved image resolution, contrast, and color quality.

Source: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/31/first-modular-multi-touch-lcd-screen-takes-aim-at-microsoft/

A computer controller levitated by magnets provides a new way to physically experience virtual objects.

The "maglev" system has benefits over more mechanical haptic controllers – computer interfaces that stimulate the user's sense of touch – and its inventors are now working to commercialising the technology.

Haptic technology has uses ranging from remote medical breast checks and exploring distant lands, to recreating the feel of fabrics.

But most haptic interfaces to date rely upon gloves or robotic arms to provide feedback to a user. The complex mechanics involved increases weight and friction that can make it difficult to provide a natural feel.

Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn13410-maglev-joystick-gives-better-feedback.html

"Virtual fabric" that feels just like the real thing is being developed by a group of European researchers. Detailed models of the way fabrics behave are combined with new touch stimulating hardware to realistically simulate a texture's physical properties.

Detailed measurements of a fabric's stress, strain and deformation properties are fed into a computer, recreating it virtually. Two new physical interfaces then allow users to interact with these virtual fabrics – an exoskeleton glove with a powered mechanical control system attached to the back and an array of moving pins under each finger. The "haptic" glove exerts a force on the wearer's fingers to provide the sensation of manipulating the fabric, while the "touching" pins convey a tactile sense of the material's texture.

"We are now ready to combine those two into one device," says Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, who is leading the project. A prototype should be ready by the end of 2007, she says.

Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11179-haptic-glove-to-touch-on-virtual-fabrics.html