The Touché project is a combined effort from Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University. The obvious application is for locking and unlocking given different touches (tap, pinch, twist or grab) but the creators behind the project showed off different uses as well. Careful manipulation of your hand and finger can set a built-in screen to display “do not disturb”, “back in five minutes” or other messages. The sensors are more attuned to specific stimuli than current capacitive sensors – for example, a Touché strip can tell the difference between “five fingers and a stylus” and “six points of contact”.

Other fanciful examples of the sensor technology were Bluetooth wristbands that interpreted  touches across the user’s hands and arms as music controls, sensors in a table that could detect posture (a nightmare for six-year-olds everywhere) and even extending into a bowl of soup to determine if the correct utensil was being used. The applications for this really are limitless, thanks to the fact that the Touché sensor doesn’t actually have to embed a piece of material all across a surface. Expect to see this stuff adorning the halls in Disney’s next resort.

[via PopSci]

The new ClearPad 2200 capacitive multi-touch screen will be the company’s first to use its SignaClarity technology, which boosts the signal-to-noise ratio for improved accuracy in finger tracking and separation. It uses advanced filtering and noise mitigation algorithms so that other components won’t interfere while it can still be flexible enough to support various sensor stack-ups.

Since the latest and greatest smartphones are all measuring at least 4.3-inches in screen size these days, with some going the extreme of tablet-phone hybrids, such as the Galaxy Note, the ClearPad 2200 will target smaller entry-level smartphones. This will give lower-range devices improved touchscreen response and accuracy. The new screen will be shown off at Mobile World Congress next week in Barcelona.

[via Engadget]

The Gunze prototype had a capacitive touchscreen embedded in a tabletop with four electrodes located around the touch panel. In order for the touchscreen to differentiate between the players around the table, each player would have to have one hand hold the electrode while the other hand touched the screen.

Touching the electrode and then the touchscreen panel forms a closed circuit via the human body. The prototype so far also allows users to to operate the table by sitting on conductive chairs instead of having to touch an electrode with the other hand.

The Gunze touchscreen panel was introduced at the 11th International Nanotechnology Exhibition & Conference 2012 in Tokyo this month, but a timeframe for commercialization isn’t set yet. The company hopes to market the technology for multiplayer game machines.

[via Tech On]

We’ve seen similar offerings hit mass production from the likes of Samsung and now everyone else seems to be rushing to get their own out. Today at CES that is exactly what 3M Touch Systems had on display for our team at SlashGear to enjoy.

3M took things a step further than the competition and showcased their 46″ Projected Capacitive Technology display that is capable of multiple simultaneous users with a 60 touch point capacitive screen. 3M’s device will allow 4 split screens for users to multi-task, multi-touch, and anything else you can think up at the same exact time.

We quickly gave this tablet-like table a run to see how well it would fair and while it’s only a prototype — the results were more than pleasing. The capacitive touch was extremely responsive although pressure sensitivity could use some adjustment. In the video demonstration below you can see near the end I can swivel, rotate, and resize all without a stutter or delay in video playback. Impressive right?

Now I just need one in my coffee table, bathroom mirror, and anywhere else that would be unnecessarily awesome.

This patent focuses on the oscillator signal and circuit of a touchscreen, technology that is integral to how users interact with a multitouch device. Previous resistive touchscreens can only recognize a single touch input no matter how many objects are touching the screen. Capacitive touchscreens can rely on oscillating signals to track inputs over a substrate but creating a precise ciruit-based oscillator is difficult.

Apple’s patent provides a solution that uses calibration logic circuitry that compares signal oscillation against a reference signal and then accordingly tunes its clock frequency. This offers an accurate capacitive display that can detect multiple touches as well as hovers and near touches.

[via AppleInsider]

Pre-orders for this little set of beasts starts tomorrow (Tuesday, the 21st of November), and will be available with shipping guaranteed for pre-Christmas delivery. There’s the Mimo Magic Touch and the Mimo Magic Touch Deluxe, the latter adding a 2 port mini-USB hub as well as separate AC power adapter to recharge separate devices whenever you want. What you’ll almost certainly want to do with this little superstar is to plug it in to your PC and load up something like iTunes, controlling that application on this extension of your normal monitor for easy access.

The Mimo Magic Touch is less than 1-inch thick and weighs in at under a pound, its display a cool 1024 x 600 pixel resolution for all your relatively HD needs. You’ll be able to use this device with Windows 7 fully touch-sensitive or can use it as a display-only monitor with Windows Vista/XP/2000 and Mac OS. The standard unit rings in at $299 while the Touch Deluxe will cost you a total of $329.99. Scoop em up!

Too…much…information…

One of the theories on schizophrenia is that people suffering from the disorder cannot forget or ignore as much stimuli as they should, and that makes it harder for them to process everything coming their way. They lose connections between stories, and cannot distinguish between reality and illusion. We know that dopamine plays a role in this process of differentiating experiences. Well, scientists at the University of Texas-Austin have been experimenting with causing schizophrenia-like symptoms in a neural network, called DISCERN.

DISCERN is able to learn natural language, and has been taught a series of simple stories, and stores information as relationships between words and sentences. Then the scientists told the computer to “forget less”, so that it had to pay attention to every detail of information. The computer began making ridiculous claims, and raving about being responsible for a terrorist bombing. “DISCERN began putting itself at the center of fantastical, delusional stories that incorporated elements from other stories it had been told to recall,” according to a news release from the University. The scientists at UT hope that the experiments with driving the neural network crazy can help with research in humans.

Super-creepy nose thing

Ok, this one just creeps me out. Something about this giant strap-on nose that looks like a cross between a hairy snout and a proboscis is just way too weird. Couple that with the footage of the guy sitting in the bathtub using it, and yeah, I’m thoroughly creeped out. It is an interesting idea, though, to be able to use your touchscreen gadgets hands-free. The thing is made out of plaster with a capacitive stylus embedded in it, because you can’t touch a touchscreen with just anything, it has to have an electrical charge, like our skin. He even made the plaster with embedded fibers so it looks a little bit hairy (why? why???). I have swapped out the picture of the guy in the bathtub with this one. You’re welcome. But you can still see him in the tub in the video, plus seeing how the apparatus works, which it seems to pretty well. I guess it takes practice though.

Super-cute ear things

Now here is an attachable apparatus that is not at all creepy. The handiwork of Neurowear, the Necomimi straps a couple of motorized furry cat ears to a brainwave-monitoring headband, so that you can wiggle them appropriately. When you’re active and attentive, the ears perk up; when you’re feeling tired and sluggish, they lie flat. Get enthusiastic – and, frankly, who wouldn’t be permanently enthusiastic wearing a set of robotic cat ears? – and they wiggle and twitch. It’s seemingly controlled by an Android app running a Samsung Galaxy Tab. According to Neurowear, “Necomimi is the new communication tool that augments [a] human’s body and ability” and is the first step in better communicating how we’re feeling and reacting to the world beyond words and facial expressions. These are really cute. I could see them doing very well with young girls. I know my 5 year old would love them! See the promotional video below.

A more efficient way to use wind power

Wind power has its proponents. It seems like a great idea: it’s clean, it collects energy from something that occurs naturally. But it really isn’t very efficient. According to industry trade body RenewableUK, the average wind turbine only generates 20 to 30 percent of its maximum output in a year. And this may be too optimistic. The John Muir Trust published a report recently showing that 2010 wind output was only at 10 percent of capacity a third of the time. Not good.

But one potential solution is compressed air energy storage (CAES). It works like this: when the wind blows, turbines are used to compress air, which is stored in pressure vessels. In times of high demand, pressurized air is released and powers a generator, in essence, the wind power is saved until it is needed, making it more consistent. This is not a new concept, but until recently, the heat lost during compression made the process inefficient. This is being improved, though, and CAES is looking more promising.

Private Spaceflight shows promise

Well, while NASA can’t get the final space shuttle mission off the ground, private spaceflight seems to be showing more promise. Virginia-based Space Adventures announced on Thursday that it will add another seat to a Soyuz spacecraft that will be launching into low-Earth orbit by 2015. The space travelers will ride in comfort in “habitation modules”. The Soyuz TMA lunar complex will be able to take people with an extra $150 million laying around to the moon. Space Adventures is working with Boeing to build spacecraft, and is financed in part by a $50 million grant from NASA, which was part of the stimulus package (believe it or not).

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has come up with an innovative way to accomplish re-entry into the atmosphere from space. This phase of space flight has always been the most dangerous and technically challenging. What I like about the solution Virgin has found is that it’s simple. Once the spaceship enters the atmosphere, the tail structure of the spaceship can be rotated upwards to a 65 degree angle. This is called a “feathered” configuration, and positions the fuselage parallel to the horizon, creating very high drag as the spaceship descends. This configuration is very stable, and relys on physics instead of a complicated fly-by-wire system. The spaceship is made of lightweight materials, so the combination of high drag and low weight means that the skin temperature stays very low compared to previous spacecraft. This elimates the need for heat shields and tiles, which have been such a problem on the Space Shuttle. Once the craft reaches around 70,000 feet, the feather lowers back to its original configuration and the spaceship simply glides back to the runway.

Private spaceflight, while right now reserved only for the super-rich, will likely one day become more accessible as innovations and better technology come into play. Our solar system may become a vacation destination in the next century.

Rollin’ Justin robot can make coffee

The German Aerospace Agency, DLR, has developed a robot with remarkable agility, called Rollin’ Justin. He is controlled with an iPad interface. Justin can catch a ball thrown at it with 80% accuracy (probably better than I can!). This robot uses sensors to detect the flight path of the ball thrown at it, and move its hands within 2cm of the predicted flight path. The hand can move to the predicted spot in only five milliseconds. He can even catch two balls at once. In the video below, Rollin’ Justin also makes a cup of coffee. Our own Shane McGlaun says, “Once it can clean toilets and wash dishes I am buying one.” I agree! Maybe he could make my kids breakfast when I want to sleep in. If you can make coffee, you can make a bowl of cereal, or butter some toast right?

The glass is processed using the “float process” where glass is floated over molten metal to produce a highly uniform surface.

All this to say, thinner and lighter screen glass means thinner and lighter devices. And that’s a good thing for everyone.

[via PR Newswire]

The side panel contains a scroll wheel and nine fixed buttons. This is for things like escape, space, control, shift etc. It’s designed so that one hand manipulates the stylus and touchscreen while one works with the panel on the side. The eight buttons lined up above and below the fixed buttons are all actually small e-ink displays that shift form and function based on context. The design also includes kickstands on both sides so it’s equally ergonomic for lefties.

The technology that’s coming out right now in tablet computers is honestly unlike anything else. The confluence of large and relatively inexpensive touchscreens (that don’t suck), bright and long-lasting OLED screens(that are affordable for the average Joe), and systems on a chip(RISC did change everything, Hackers was right!) changed the game forever. As I’ve heard my friends often exclaim with glee, “We’re living in the future!”

[via Yanko]

Research In Motion have managed to throw in plenty of features, if the listed specifications pan out to be true. Though, as we’ve seen in other devices in the past from the company, the Dakota doesn’t stand as the king of the smartphone hill, but strictly at the head of the BlackBerry lineage for a short time. Features like a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen display, but with a VGA resolution of 640 x 480.

The device will also feature Near Field Communications (NFC) built-in. It is a Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device, with a 5MP camera on the back. RIM has included 4GB of internal memory, along with 768MB of RAM. The Dakota will have Bluetooth connectivity, integrated 802.11 WiFi b/g/n, an accelerometer, proximity sensor, and a magnetometer. Perhaps one of the device’s best features is the ability to use it as a 3G mobile hotspot. It will use a microUSB port for charging.

The Dakota is reported to be launching with BlackBerry OS 6.1, so we imagine there will be new features within the mobile Operating System (OS) itself, but details regarding those are not available at this time. What carrier exactly the new Dakota will launch on is up in the air, but it is likely that the device will launch on AT&T some time in the future. No exact date is available.

[Update]: It looks like BlackBerry OS 6.1 just broke cover over at DevCon Asia over in Bali late last night. Some of the new features in the OS will be the new magnetometer listed above, and APIs for digital compass usage. There will also be support for OpenGL-ES 2.0, Window API, and event-based geo-fencing location APIs.

[via Boy Genius Report]

We ran many tests with the device and came to the conclusion that you can get input through some cotton gloves or even thick cotton material. This seems to be the case with most current-gen Samsung devices such as the Nexus S, Samsung Focus, and Galaxy Tab. Our initial tests with the Nexus S shows truly how responsive the screen is, it works flawlessly, as if you were giving the device direct finger contact.

We do not know how Samsung has produced such an impressive and responsive screen, or even if they’re aware of how responsive the device is when not receiving direct fingertip contact. You can check out the video below, and see the pink glove in action as it utilizes the Nexus S’ display.

[via Android Community]

The Samsung Continuum, distributed through Verizon, features a 1GHz processor, a Ticker 1.8 inch display under the main display – the main display being a 3.4 inch capacitive touchscreen Super AMOLED, and Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0 user interface. The device is comparable to Samsung’s Fascinate, already available through Verizon for $199 after $100 mail-in rebate, but feels noticeably smaller. The Ticker seems like a fun idea, but will take some getting used-to for any first-time user. Check out the original post over at Android Community and look at this video-amongst-videos hands-on too to get a better idea of how the 1.8 inch display functions:

[Via Android Community]

Sure, there are other gloves out there that will let you work with a capacitive touchscreen display, but it’s the Agloves that were created using the best scientific research to create a whole new type of glove. The gloves feature a silver yarn that’s knitted into the entirety of the gloves. The result, is that the gloves offer up ten-finger control, so that you can use all of your fingers to interact with your device. So, that full-screen keyboard on the iPad is still usable.

Thanks to the silver yarn, the Agloves will be able to keep your fingers and hands warm, despite their lightweight nature. And, thankfully, the gloves are designed to be unisex, so all the guys out there won’t look like they’re wearing a woman’s accessory to work on their phone. What’s better, though, is that the Agloves are available right now, and they only cost $17.99.

[via Gear Diary]

Hitachi has grown to be one of those companies that’s focusing a lot on technology of the future lately, and we don’t have a problem with that at all. Especially when they’re making movies like Minority Report come to life. This time around, though, they’ve managed to create the same kind of touch panel that devices like the iPad and iPhone use, but with a bit of a twist.

When it comes to touchscreens, resistive panels let you use pretty much whatever you want, because instead of utilizing the electricity in your skin to make actions happen, it actually uses “pressure.” Meaning you’ve got to put some effort into making a resistive screen do what you want it to do. However, it does mean you get to use stylus devices, or use your fingers tucked away nicely in an insulating material like a glove. Overall, though, capacitive touch panels have become the focus of mainstream consumers, based on their ease of use.

Hitachi must see some market in a capacitive touchscreen that will let you use a stylus, and even your gloved hand, because that’s exactly what they’ve done. The stylus is actually a synthetic-resin pen, but the panel itself will allow owners to use it by a myriad of methods. You can use multi-touch if you want, that syn-resin pen, or even your gloved hand, without ever having to switch devices. The panel is able to fully detect both conductive materials and insulating materials seamlessly, by converting the input information to capacitive. What’s better, though, is that a normal controller chip can be used for the whole thing, so more money doesn’t have to get utilized for inclusion of special chips.

Hitachi, who loves to show off their future tech, plans on showcasing the display at this year’s Createc trade show that takes place in Japan from October 5th to the 9th. As soon as we get to see more of it, you will to, so stay tuned.

[via Tech-On; thanks, Mike!]

The 22-inch monitor is capable of detecting upwards of 20 points simultaneously. It comes manufactured with a projected capacitive touch panel, and there’s a trio of capacitive chips tucked away in the thin frame of the monitor. The resolution is 1,680 x 1,050, and 3M boasts that the response time of you touching the monitor and a reaction happening is no longer than 6ms.

Suggested retail price of the M2256PW is $1,500, and it doesn’t look like 3M is positioning the multi-touch monitor for home usage, but rather the enterprise market. Of course, we imagine that a few people out there would prefer this in their living room, and would probably make it happen. No word on when exactly the monitor will be released and available, though.

[via TechOn!]

One of Samsung’s biggest pride points about the Wave is its Super AMOLED display, and while we’ve a soft-spot for the richness of color and crisp detail such panels deliver, we’ve been waiting to see whether the company’s claims for outdoor-visibility pan out. The Wave has an outdoor-specific display mode, which ramps up color saturation in certain apps; it works well, though we’d still like a screen that’s equally visible in all situations without needing tweaking.

Still, the touchscreen is responsive and the onscreen keyboard seems decent. The homescreen is a mixture of fixed icons and a slice of widget-style customization, though lacks the true interactive gadgets you’d find on, say, an Android device. In fact it’s more of a shortcut launching area than anything else, allowing you to pin your favorite apps where they’re easily accessible, rather than navigating to them through the iPhone-styled menus.

That navigation is swift, courtesy of Samsung’s 1GHz Hummingbird processor, and the Wave generally feels high quality and solid. It’s a slim device too, pleasingly narrow, and fits nicely in the hand. When you first power on you’re invited to link up your phone contacts with your Facebook and Twitter friends, though it’s a labored experience rather than the partially-automated approach you’d find in, say, HTC’s Sense. If anything, the Wave seems determined to remind us at each step that it’s not quite a feature-phone and not quite a smartphone.

We’ll be putting the Wave through its paces for the full SlashGear review, to try to figure out whether or not bada is the next big thing or an unnecessary stop-gap. Until then, enjoy the hands-on gallery and video demo!

Unboxing Samsung Wave:

The two previous version of the PT line-up, the 1820PT and 1820PTZ were announced at the end of last year, but as was aforementioned, they have yet to make it to the market. Nevertheless, that doesn’t seem to be stopping Acer from trucking on ahead, and manufacturing netbooks that might make you not want to necessarily buy the previous versions. Specs wise, the 1825PT is packed with a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor, has 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. The 1825PTZ features a 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 processor, 250GB hard drive, and 3GB of RAM. That should obviously make it a bit cheaper than the PT as well.

The details tell us that both netbooks will come with Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, which means more customization than the Windows 7 Starter Edition that makes an appearance on most netbooks. Pricing about the netbooks is currently debatable, but apparently it’s shown up in Italy for €693.15, which is about $942. Hopefully, if this device does indeed make it to the States, the pricing will drop significantly. Of course, it’s a capacitive touchscreen, so we might be hoping a bit too hard for the impossible.

[via Netbook Reviews]