finger

FingerLink turns paper into touch screens

There are many gestural interfaces under development, but our fingers remain one of the most useful tools we have. Fujitsu's FingerLink lets your fingers control a scanner and projector for printed information, acting as a bridge between digital and analog tech.

The prototype uses off-the-shelf cameras and projectors. Fujitsu's image-processing software links the two.

It can accurately detect where your fingers are as you touch or swipe any printed matter, letting you copy text or images and project them elsewhere. The size of projected images can similarly be adjusted with a fingertip. … Read more

Watch a device add a virtual touch screen to paper

We're inching closer to a paperless existence, but until then, a new image-processing development by Fujitsu could make it astonishingly simple to copy content from paper and turn it into digital data.

Merely relying on an ordinary camera and projector, Fujitsu's touch-based interface makes quick work out of copying printed text or images by simply requiring the user to drag across content with a fingertip. The projector shines an illuminated frame that dynamically resizes based on how far the finger travels, and the observing camera scans, crops, and turns that selection into a digital file -- in just a few seconds.… Read more

J-Lo promotes 'finger break-dance' app game

Time to get your rhinestone glove on and let your fingers do the walking -- or dancing in this case.

The Hollywood-backed app Dance Pad makes its debut Thursday on the iPad, with pop icon Jennifer Lopez as its cheerleader.

The title, a rhythm dance game for smartphones, involves hitting the right beats with your fingers, much like the popular dance game Dance Dance Revolution (where you actually dance with your feet).

The app, originally the brainchild of several USC students who were inspired by finger break-dancing videos on YouTube, has the benefit of star power. Besides J-Lo's massive … Read more

The 404 993: Where we smell the roses (podcast)

If you're burning to spend this Valentine's Day, Pizza Hut has a $10,000 engagement party package that includes a personal fireworks display, a one-topping pizza, and bread sticks with icing to prep your stomach for a lifetime of loneliness. … Read more

Creepy mechanical hand is always impatient

When you don't have time to be impatient, consider pressing the Fingers Mk II into service to express your displeasure at having to wait around.

The mechanical hand consists of resin fingers attached to steel plates. A motor moves the fingers in a rhythmic pattern familiar to anyone who is either bored or an Addams Family fan.

The tapping oddity runs on two AA batteries and will be limited to an edition of 25. It could lend a strange new meaning to giving someone a hand.… Read more

Reporters' Roundtable: Happy 30th birthday, IBM PC

Happy birthday, IBM PC. Thirty years ago today, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, IBM launched its first mass-market personal computer.

The IBM 5150 PC was not the first personal computer. The Apple II was on the market then, as were computers from Commodore and Atari and from several vendors selling CP/M micros. But it was, by any measure, the most important.

Although not for technical reasons. IBM designed the computer architecture, for example, but neither the CPU nor the operating system. Rather, what made the IBM PC such a watershed was that, first, it came from IBM, the company that had computing technology already installed at just about every major company. Second, it was the first successful open computing platform. The PC-compatible era gave us Compaq and then hundreds of "clone" vendors. It gave us the software industry as we know it. And today, the vast majority of desktop and laptop computers that the world uses are direct descendants of decisions made at IBM in 1980.

In this Reporters' Roundtable, we're going to talk about how the PC came to be today, as well as look at where it is and where it's going, with two guests I think you're really going to enjoy hearing from.

First, a previously recorded interview with David Bradley, one of the engineers on the original IBM PC project. He wrote the BIOS code and is famous for creating the Ctrl-Alt-Delete reset command. Bradley retired in 2004 after more than 28 years with IBM. He has also been an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University and North Carolina State University. Bradley received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University.

After that interview, we'll talk with Michael J. Miller, former editor in chief of PC Magazine, and now senior VP for technology strategy at Ziff Brothers Investments. I worked with Michael in 1988 when he was my boss at InfoWorld. He is extraordinarily knowledgeable about the history of computing, and has a sharp eye for what works in technology, and why. Michael still writes the Forward Thinking column for the PC Magazine site. This week, he wrote several stories about the IBM PC's birthday.

Subscribe: iTunes (MP3)iTunes (320x180)iTunes (640x360)Podcast RSS (MP3)Podcast RSS (320x180)Podcast RSS (640x360)

… Read more

The 404 854: Where we don't point fingers (podcast)

Researcher in the Asian Journal of Andrology claims that the size ratio between your ring and index fingers has a direct correlation to the size of...another body part. There's a cheesy pickup line somewhere in there that we're too lazy to create.

In other news, Verizon is introducing tiered data plans and eliminating the unlimited model; Facebook is about to launch "something awesome;" and the slacker generation gets a new King on today's episode of The 404!

The 404 Digest for Episode 854

Finger length has anatomical significance. Facebook to launch "something awesome." Verizon confirms tiered data plans and hot-spot charge for July 7. Why young men are refusing to grow up.

Episode 854 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

X Fingers prosthetic designed to replace lost digits

More lifelike, functional prosthetics for lost fingers may soon be more readily available as mechanical digits known as X Fingers are set to be mass-produced within six months, according to inventor Dan Didrick.

X Fingers are fashioned out of surgical steel and bend naturally with the movement of residual fingers. They're simple, lightweight, body-powered, and don't require any electronics or electricity.

The removable devices can be covered in thermoplastic for a lifelike appearance. Depending on the configuration they're sometimes anchored in a wrist strap.

Florida-based Didrick was motivated in part by a desire to help a hearing-impaired person regain sign language ability after losing fingers. He whittled his first concept prototype out of pine wood.

Then he began using 3D design software to refine his invention. Eight years after initial sketches, hundreds of X Fingers are in use today, and Didrick Medical has also produced X Thumbs.

There seems to be a big demand for these simple devices. Citing U.S. Bureau of Labor data, the company says about 8,000 work-related amputations occur each year involving one or more fingers. … Read more

One-finger racing

Touch Racing Nitro lets you race around complex tracks with sharp curves, jumps, and obstacles using only one finger to control your car. The game offers a tutorial for learning the one-finger controls, and we recommend starting there first, because it's a little tricky. The two main game modes in Touch Racing Nitro are the Free Racing mode and the Tournament mode. Free racing comes in handy to practice your one-finger driving skills with no time limits and no opponents. But once you start a Tournament, you'll need to race against three computer-controlled opponents and try for the … Read more