Touchscreens are great, but for many of us nothing beats old fashioned tactile controls. That seems to be one of the reasons why Lyndsay Williams of Girton Labs is in the process of developing SenseSurface--a system that allows users to stick working knobs to on-screen virtual controls. Apparently, the magnetic knobs can be placed anywhere on an LCD because the movement is picked up by a "unique sensing surface" attached behind the screen. It seems fairly unnecessary, but I'm sure that there are practical applications for this for music and graphics fields--or anyone who is tired of smudging up a touchscreen. A video of SenseSurface in action is available after the break.

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For some reason, that headline sounds just wrong, but whatever. Here's the Bird Electoron DJ-4, "the passive type micro mixer of power source unnecessary." In other words: yes, it's from Japan and yes, it's a very simple passive mixer with two mini-stereo inputs and one output. The seller for me is the two big analog knobs: VOLUME and VOLUME. For just $70 you will be able to connect your two MP3 players and touch your own two big knobs until your audience's ears bleed. Or they throw you into the river inside a sack full of rocks after you play the same Black Eyed Peas track for the 28th time.

– Jesus Diaz

Bird electron, outdated future mixer of design - Adopting the electricity guitar and the isomorphic volume knob (Thanks Google Translate!) [Impress AV Watch]