touchscreen
Moto Labs screens interactive display concept
A new touch-screen tabletop computer display brings together the unlikely combination of technologies popularized by Apple and Microsoft.
It's called the Scalable Multitouch display, and its touch technology is similar to the iPhone, but it would scale up from handheld device size to dimensions more like those of Microsoft's Surface. The prototype measures just 19 inches right now, but it aspires to cover an entire 50-inch tabletop one day.
The Scalable Multitouch has been in development at Moto Labs in San Francisco for the past two years, and on Tuesday the company released an updated video (below) as a peek of what it's working on.
Like Microsoft's Surface, the Scalable Multitouch display is intended to be used as a group workspace where information on the screen can be manipulated by hand. But Moto Labs CEO Daniell Hebert says what his company is doing is different than Microsoft and others because it does not use cameras or projectors underneath the surface of the display to project images. And by nixing the inner camera/projector, it allows the display to be thin--perhaps some day as thin as the LCD screen you're likely reading this on.
The display instead uses multitouch technology--which means you can use more than one finger as an input device. Moto Labs likes to say that you can use as many fingers to control the device as you want, and that you're only limited by the number of fingers you have on each hand.
The device also employs capacitive touch--same as the iPhone--in which a finger touching a sensor grid (just below the screen) causes a change in signal. That relays exactly where on the screen the finger is. But while the iPhone uses a solid solution known as ITO (indium tin oxide), Moto Labs employs a grid of super-thin wires that pick up on the signals from each finger.
The thin-wire grid is used right now in single-touch displays, but has yet to be used on multitouch, and that's where Moto Labs' work on the inner electronics and the software to take advantage of multitouch comes in. … Read more
Shuttle X50 all-in-one Nettop lands on U.S. shores
Correction: The previous price listed was incorrect. This post has been updated to reflect the correct price of $599.
The company famous for its stylish, small Linux desktops is trying its hand at touch screens.
The Shuttle X50, an all-in-one desktop with the low-power Intel Atom processor, is now available in the U.S. and Europe, the company announced Thursday. The X50 was first announced at CES in January.
It sports a dual-core Atom processor, 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP Home Edition, 5.1-channel audio, a Web cam and built-in microphone, 4-in-1 card reader, 802.11 … Read more
SmartTouch puts some muscle into haptic technology
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Artificial Muscle believes that when you touch your computer or phone, it should touch back.
The Silicon Valley company is working on putting haptic feedback in a variety of devices, from laptops to touch-screen phones. Though forced feedback isn't a new concept, the way this company is going about it is different. It showed off some of its technologies at the Interactive Displays 2009 conference here.
Instead of using the vibration motor in a phone to give feedback from a screen, the company has developed and patented an electroactive polymer that expands when it receives an … Read more
Hands on with on the Sony X-series Walkman
Rumors of a new touch-screen Walkman were already making the rounds on the Web before its official announcement and, sure enough, Sony unveiled its latest X-series portable multimedia player at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas back in January. We had the chance to sneak a prototype into our Labs recently to run it through its paces.
Upside A few things we like about the X-series Walkman: It has a nice, solid feel, plus the rough granite edges add a unique and contrasting touch to this multimedia player with a 3-inch OLED wide-screen display. The 432x240-pixel panel is half an inch smaller and has a lower resolution than the one on the second-gen iPod Touch, but is just as responsive as the latter.
Vertical scrolling through the album art to select songs is also a dead ringer for Apple's Cover Flow interface. The speed at which scrolling accelerates depends on how fast you swipe your digit across the screen. With a quick sweep, the album art races either toward or away from you at an angle. This has a pseudo 3D effect and makes it seem like the covers are a pack of cards a la credits rolling style from "Star Trek".… Read more
Nikon, Panasonic offer two good cameras for $220
One's an easy-to-use, fashionable point-and-shoot, the other's an advanced shooter with just as many manual-setting options as auto modes. Both have 3-inch touch-screen LCDs and 10-megapixel resolutions--and you can have your pick for $220 or less each from reputable dealers.
From its stylish S series of ultracompact cameras, the Nikon Coolpix S230 is the follow-up to the very popular S210.
Its features are pretty basic, but Nikon adds the requisite face, smile, and blink detection I expect to find on cameras in its class. You also get the advantage of the touch-screen interface for things like a touch-based … Read more
Virgin Mobile promises touch-screen phones
Virgin Mobile's CEO said Tuesday that the Mobile Virtual Network Operator plans to introduce touch-screen handsets. Speaking at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference, CEO Dan Schulman didn't give any specifics, but he said that the handsets would be part of a move to "smarter" phones.
As an MVNO carrier with a core prepaid business, Virgin Mobile focuses on low-end and basic models for making calls and sending messages. Over the past 18 months, and particularly after its acquisition of Helio, the operator has offered more multimedia handsets and messaging-centric devices with full keyboards. Yet, like … Read more
A touching update to Dell's all-in-one desktop
The Studio One 19, announced Thursday, is the newest incarnation of Dell's all-in-one desktop.
The Studio One, has been given a slight cosmetic makeover, but the biggest change is inside, where the company has added a touch screen and multitouch software.
With the touch screen, Dell hopes consumers will use the desktop as a family PC in a common room, like the kitchen or living room, said Alex Gruzen, Dell's senior vice president of consumer products, in an interview earlier this week. "It's also a chance for parents to see what kids are doing on the computer again," he added.
Desktops are rapidly shrinking category, and all the PC makers are trying to find ways to get consumers excited about them. All-in-one devices are apparently what the industry has settled on. Most of the biggest PC makers offer one, though the feature levels vary between the Apple iMac, Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart PC, Lenovo IdeaCentre A600, Gateway One, Sony Vaio LT, and Asus Eee Top. … Read more
Podcast: Innovative netbook with removable touch-screen
The company claims it will get up to 15 hours of battery life.
Video: Demo of touch-screen Asus Eee Top
Asus stopped by to show us the touch interface of its upcoming Eee Top, the Atom-powered all-in-one desktop. Check out the video above. It will start shipping in early March.
The Eee Top is interesting for many reasons, but most certainly because, at least for now, it's the cheapest all-in-one desktop PC on the market. At $599 it comes in at almost half the price of the all-in-ones available from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, and Apple.
Though it's certainly fancy with its 16-inch touch screen, custom Asus Easy Mode menu, and MacBook-esque tile keyboard (with pop-out stylus), the low price is achieved by what's not included: No Vista, no superfast Intel processor. It's a Nettop at its core, running Windows XP with an Atom processor.
As a result, the Eee Top is sort of a strange hybrid in terms of what machines it competes with. It's a Nettop, but the only one that comes with a monitor built in. (See Shuttle's X27 Mini, and Asus' own Eee Box.)
On the other hand, it's a touch-screen living room or kitchen PC, which would place it in the same category as HP's TouchSmart, except it's much cheaper ($599 versus $1,299) and much less sophisticated in terms of styling, design, and software.
Asus would tell you it has no competitors with this PC, and it's right--for now.… Read more
