input
Peripherals
Ill-Fated Input Devices: Wonderfully Strange, But Tragically Flawed
1:20AM Danny Allen | Harry McCracken over at Technologizer has put together a fun collection of weird and wonderful mouse patents, most of which fell off the conveyer belt somewhere between the drawing board and better judgment. More »
Peripherals
Lenovo On The Slow, Painful Evolution Of Keyboards
8:36PM John Herrman | The Lenovo T400 series, aside from its occasional tussles with heavy machinery, doesn’t immediately stand out in the mid-size, high-end laptop crowd. That is, until you try to type on one. More »
Screens
Schematic “Touchwall” Is Multitouch, Multi-User, Freakin’ Huge
5:30AM Simon Crisp | An immersive multitouch, multi-user “Touchwall” has been revealed… for trade conference attendees. More »
Peripherals
UnMouse Pad Prototype is Paper Thin, Multitouch and Pressure Sensitive
8:30AM Adrian Covert | The UnMouse Pad is like the MacBook Air/Pro’s multitouch trackpad on steroids. On display at the Microsoft Research Summit (which also housed the Microsoft Sphere), this Joint project between Microsoft and NYU utilises Force-Sensing Resistors to create one giant, mouse pad-sized circuit. In the last part of the video, you can see the insane amount of input points the UnMouse Pad can track and the rising bars indicate the amount of pressure applied at each point (especially when I press my whole hand on the pad). And according to creator Ken Perlin, the technology used in the UnMouse Pad is apparently dirt cheap as well, which could make it friendly for consumer markets. [Microsoft Research] More »
Peripherals
Asus Working on Handwriting-Pad Add-on for Eee PC
11:00PM Gizmodo US Edition | While modders are busily adapting the Eee PC for touchscreen capability, it seems that Asus has been working on an official handwriting recognition add-on. Demoed at last weeks Computex show, the Asus pad accepts English and Chinese (traditional and simplified) characters and simply plugs into the Eee’s USB port. It measures 10.9 x 11.2 x 1.8 cms, with the touch pad being a little over 5cms across. If you’re an eager hand-writing fan, you’ll have to wait though, as there’s no launch date or price info. [Aving via Pocket Lint] More »
Computers
Microsoft: Touchscreens Old and Busted; Force Sensitivity Is New Hotness
11:30AM Matt Buchanan | Craving a bit deeper, more meaningful interaction action with your touchscreen gadget, like maybe stretching or squeezing it? Microsoft thought so. Researchers have come up with a prototype of their force-sensing tech that’ll let you apply different kinds of force to a device, like twisting or bending, to do stuff like flip through document pages or swing through applications. More »
Gadgets
Elliptic Touchless UI Puts the Input Interface in Thin Air
3:00AM Haroon Malik | Touchscreen interfaces are great, but all that touching, like foreplay, can be a little bit of a drag. Enter the wonder kids from Elliptic Labs, who are hard at work on implementing a touchless interface. The input method is, well, in thin air. The technology detects motion in 3D and requires no special worn-sensors for operation. By simply pointing at the screen, users can manipulate the object being displayed in all three dimensions. Details are light on how this actually functions, but what we do know is this: More »
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