multitouch

IE takes Contre Jour to the next level

Contre Jour may look like little more than a high-gloss version of Cut the Rope, but that sheen goes a long way. Last year, it earned top honors from Apple itself in 10 countries across Asia and Europe, and starting today you can play Contre Jour on the Web for free for the first time.

It appears to faithfully replicate its gameplay from the iPad, right down to the multi-touch controls required to advance in the third chapter. But while the game is pretty to look at and fun to play, it's a showcase -- like Google's Cirque du Soleil experiment … Read more

Microsoft buys Perceptive Pixel, maker of large touch displays

Microsoft has acquired Perceptive Pixel, a company specializing in large multitouch displays.

Perceptive Pixel made a name for itself in 2008 during the U.S. presidential election after several networks used its technology to power their large touch-displays. (Remember CNN's "Magic Wall?") Since then, the company has largely been operating under the radar and improving its technologies. This year, it announced the first-ever simultaneous pen and touch technology for its hardware.

Perceptive Pixel's hardware page currently lists 27-, 55-, and 82-inch LCDs on its Web site.

Although Microsoft didn't say for sure what it has … Read more

Apple coughing up $5 million to settle patent infringement suit

Apple will spend $5 million to settle a suit filed by Elan Microelectronics over the alleged violation of a patent for multitouch technology, Elan said today.

As part of the settlement, the two companies have also received authorization to use each other's patents, according to Reuters.

In April 2009, Taiwan-based Elan filed its suit against Apple in U.S. District Court, accusing the iPhone maker of violating a 1998 Elan patent covering a method to detect the use of one or more fingers on a touchpad. Apple then countersued Elan for alleging infringing on two Apple touchpad-related patents.

Elan … Read more

MultiTaction turns walls into giant touch screens

MultiTouch, a Finland-based company known for its interactive display systems, has launched the MultiTaction Cell 55". The display is supposedly the "world's largest integrated multiuser LCD multitouch display," which means (way) more than one person can use it at a time.

These full-HD displays can be wall-mounted or embedded in custom furniture. As they are stackable and have a super-thin bezel, you can mount as many as 24 displays together--edge to edge--to form one large touch screen.

Powered by an Intel Core-i processor and Nvidia GPU, the MultiTaction Cell 55" panel also consists of 32 camera modules that are able to detect different users' hands via infrared (IR) technology. This is a vast improvement over the company's previous iteration, the MultiTaction Cell 46", which had only two IR cameras.

In Singapore--the only Asian stop on MultiTouch's global product demo tour--MultiTouch CEO Petri Martikainen demonstrated the intelligent multitouch display's features. We noted that it's generally responsive and renders graphics smoothly, due to its 200fps response. … Read more

Intel: Ultrabooks have to be 'cool'

At an Intel Capital conference this week an Intel executive spelled out how and why the market will transition to ultrabooks over the next few years. In a word, ultrabooks need to be "cool."

Intel is driving the PC industry to ultrabooks with a $300 million ultrabook fund--principally for hardware development--and a second fund announced this week, the $100 million AppUpSM Fund, targeted at applications for future ultrabooks.

Erik Reid, the general manager of the Mobile Platforms Division at Intel's PC Client Group, detailed Intel's thinking in a session at the Intel conference this week in Huntington Beach, Calif.

The coolness factor: "Users want something that's cool," said Reid. Intel research shows that when people see an ultrabook they think that "it must be better engineered because it's thin. It's harder to make a thin device than a thick device. It's more forward-looking." … Read more

Apple denied trademark for 'Multi-Touch' in the U.S.

Apple's effort to trademark the term "Multi-Touch" in the United States has been denied.

MacRumors posts the decision of the United States Patent and Trademark Office dated from last week, wherein the governing body denied Apple's application, saying that the term is merely descriptive of how people interact with its products.

"Thus, from the foregoing, we find that 'multi-touch' not only identifies the technology, but also describes how a user of the goods operates the device," the filing from the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board reads. "Based on the evidence discussed … Read more

HP TouchPad screen can now support Android

The HP TouchPad is now capable of running Android with full use of the touch screen, thanks to the technical team at TouchDroid.

Hard at work porting Android over to HP's discontinued but much-in-demand tablet, the TouchDroid techs were able to create the necessary drivers to coax Android 2.3.5 to run on the TouchPad and let people tap into the touch screen.

Unveiling a video (also seen below) showing off the team's progress, a TouchDroid developer demonstrated how he could fluidly and smoothly tap and move his finger around a TouchPad running Android with no delays or skips. He even demoed Android's multitouch feature, moving five fingers and then ten fingers across the screen.

Though TouchDroid is currently using Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread on its demo tablet, its ultimate goal is to support the current flavor of Honeycomb or even the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich on a TouchPad. The team seems to be making quick progress as a little more than two weeks ago, its developers were still trying to drum up a TouchPad that they could use for testing.… Read more

Apple nabs more patents for multitouch, iWork

As the patent battles and bubbles continue to grow, Apple has secured the rights to several more patents of its own.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today published a series of 16 patents now owned by the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, according to Patently Apple.

Here's a rundown on some of the patents that stand out and where we could see them implemented within the Apple empire:

A multitouch related patent designed to reduce the manufacturing cost and performance of these types of displays. (Likely for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch collection, but possibly for a new Mac desktop series … Read more

Windows Phone Mango RTM

Fox delays streaming TV shows on the Web, Mad Men hits Netflix streaming, and Microsoft releases the first major update to Windows Phone codenamed Mango.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Microsoft releases Windows Phone Mango Facebook for Businesses Fox limits web access to shows Mad Men comes to Netflix Google updating Chrome for Lion multitouch Xoom owners get 4G in Sept. Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (HD) | RSS (MP3) | RSS (320x180) | RSS HD

Google updating Chrome for Lion multitouch

Google has released a new developer version of Chrome to re-enable a multitouch gesture that changed in Lion, the new version of Mac OS X that Apple released last week.

With the new operating system, a three-finger swipe left or right moves among different full-screen apps or desktops. That conflicted with Chrome's use of a three-finger swipe to move backward and forward in browsing history.

Yesterday, though, Google released Chrome 14.0.835.0 for Mac (and 14.0.835.0 for Linux, and 14.0.835.2 for Windows) that changes the forward and backward navigation to two-finger swipe gestures … Read more