Short-throw projectors are nothing new, but Hitachi’s latest does bring something different to the table: in fact it creates a table-top projected touchscreen surface. Pairing the company’s CP-A100J short-throw projector and the UPIC Plus Wireless Interactive Panel 56-M, the system can recognize and track a digital pen as it moves across the huge 56-inch projection screen.
Wacom have finally got around to officially announcing [pdf link] their Bamboo Touch multitouch tablet, a week after at least one person was able to pick one up from their local Best Buy. The Wacom Bamboo Touch is one of the company’s second generation of the Bamboo line, which also includes the Bamboo Pen & Touch, which responds both to a pen stylus (for accuracy) as well as fingers. The tablet automatically switches between the two modes, depending on whether the user has touched the surface with their finger or if the stylus nib is near.
Olympus have announced their new E-P1 Micro Four Thirds camera, as expected, and they’re describing the 12.3-megapixel snapper as a “digital PEN” in honor of their classic PEN-range. Combining the scale of a point-and-shoot with the interchangeable lens system of a DSLR, the E-P1 boasts ISO 100-6400, 20 shooting modes including five exposure modes and a full automatic setting, and Olympus’ TruePic V image processing engine.
After successful trials earlier on in the year, Fujitsu has finally put its FLEPia color e-book reader on sale. The FLEPia has an 8-inch XGA-resolution 260,000 color display, paired with both WiFi b/g and Bluetooth connectivity, and a casing just 12.5mm deep at its thickest.
Toshiba have announced three new Tablet PCs in the company’s Portégé line, all based on the M750 model and offering Intel Core 2 Duo processors, LED backlit displays and standard WiFi a/g/n. The Toshiba Portégé M750-S7211, Portégé M750-S7212 and Portégé M750-S7213 have 2GB of DDR2 memory, 160GB hard-drives (5,400rpm in the case of the S7211, 7,200rpm in the other two versions) and a 12.1-inch XGA display with digital pen input.
Wacom unveils the PL-900, a 19-inch LCD pen tablet, offering a 4:3 native resolution of 1280×1024 of interactive pen screen real estate with a smart auto-sensing video scalar that switch source aspect to 16:10 widescreen format.
Unlike the resistive-type touch screen, capacitive touch screen used in you G1, Storm or iPhone registers electricity in your finger, it will not operate properly with a gloved hand, fingernail or with a mechanical stylus; thus handwriting input devices are difficult to implement.
InPlay technologies has unwrapped a new WriteSense digital pen technology to overcome the technique barrier, enabling pen inputs for capacitive touch-screen devices. The coupling active RF pen communicates directly with the capacitive touch sensors, eliminates the need for a separate electromagnetic digitizer; It also provides a much responsive, precise and accurate input.
Digital pens might seem like frivolous gadgets and though some in the past have never really left the gizmo market, the Adapx digital pen has the real potential to be useful in a real world sort of way. In fact, the device is intended to interact with other software, specifically, Excel.
We’ve seen digital pens before, and we’ve been pestered by PR people desperate to convince us that their digital pen is the best yet, but this is the first time I’ve seen a PR person talk up another person’s product. The PR in question is Drew Benvie, and the pen is the Paper Show; a cordless stylus with a USB Bluetooth dongle and actual ink, it relies on specially-encoded paper to control presentations and write on-screen in real-time.
Samsung is planning the third refresh of its UMPC range in Q1 2009, likely to unveil the new designs at CES in January. That’s the word from Jeongseon Euh, Principal R&D Engineer in Samsung’s Computer Systems Division; in an interview with Tech Radar, Euh confirmed that the company has a 65-percent market share in the UMPC segment, and is using that lead to experiment with alternative form-factors. In terms of total sales, Samsung has shifted approximately 100,000 of the different Q1 versions worldwide.
SlashGear Japan
