I've spent a lot of time looking at strange keyboards. Anyone remember the miniguru? I even once spent a few hours browsing Cherry's website looking at the various high quality keyboard switches for an abortive project last year. That said, thank God for talented industrial designers like Michael Roopenian. Us computer users spend our time interacting with our machines primarily through the keyboard, it's the primary place where we touch and feel the physical presence of the machine. Usually we're rubbing our fingers all over a collection of cheap plastic keys. My current keyboard is an unimpressive slab of black plastic like I'm sure most of us are using. The Engrain keyboard is so pretty and I want one. Now.
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‘prototypes’ Stories
The Engrain Keyboard is Made of Wood
Toshiba Resistive Multi-touch from Embedded World
By now we're all used to multi touch capacitive displays where the slightest brush of our fingers can zoom and pan the application. At Embedded World in Nuremburg, Toshiba showed off their prototype of a Resistive Multi-touch display using an ARM Cortex-M3 micro-controller. Most people don't have any problems with just using a capacitive screen, but in industrial and medical applications it's often necessary for the users to wear gloves, negating the benefit of capacitive screens. Resistive screens are also much less expensive than their same-sized capacitive counterparts, and are often more durable. Toshiba will have the ability to market this technology to touchscreen markets from ATM's to Point of Sale registers and beyond.
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“Emotional” phones hold your hand, blow on you & kiss you [Video]
You could well argue that the great thing about phones is that they generally prevent the person you're talking to from lapping at your face during a conversation, but design researcher Fabian Hemmert wants to bring some of that tactile feedback into the modern cellphone. Speaking at TEDxBerlin, Hemmert showed three prototype phones that could variously recreate the feel of breathing on your neck, the squeeze of a hand, and even the wetness of a sloppy kiss.
Video after the cut
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Disposable E-Paper on the Prototype Tip
So you're totally tired of all the old ways. Books? Useless. You're not into the whole "retro" thing, and you want people to know that you're on the cutting edge. The technology edge. So what do you think that heavenly next thing is? How about some disposable e-paper? University of Cincinnati electrical engineering professor Andrew Steckl decided he wanted that too. So what did he do? He demonstrated that electrowetting works on a paper substrate just as well as it does on glass. What's that mean? It means there's going to be some e-paper on paper.
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AT&T Android prototypes HTC Paradise and HTC Fiesta spotted
A pair of previously unseen HTC prototypes have apparently been sold on Craigslist, and subsequently identified as the HTC Paradise and the HTC Fiesta. According to Cellpassion, their source was told the two Android phones were AT&T prototypes; the Paradise is a hardware QWERTY version of the Aria, while the Fiesta is a more basic touchscreen-only device.
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Intel bringing tablet & ultra-thin netbooks to Computex
Intel has promised to deliver its alternative to the iPad and other ARM-based tablets at Computex 2010, with Mooly Eden - vice president of the company's PC Client Group - taking to the stage at the Intel Investor Meeting to show off a new ultra-thin dual-core netbook reference design together with a tablet. According to Eden, Intel "are going to design silicon" for the tablet segment and will "actively participate" in the market.
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Texas Instruments OMAP4 hands-on
Mobile World Congress 2010 is fast approaching, but here at SlashGear we thought we’d grab a head start on our coverage. We caught up with Texas Instruments at their Dallas office to take a look at their latest OMAP3 and OMAP4 chipsets and some of the development hardware they’ve been producing. Most interesting, perhaps, is the OMAP4-based device you see here, capable of simultaneously driving three independent displays and packing a pico-projector module.
Microvision FPS prototype straps pico-projector to gun [Video]
Laser pico-projector manufacturer Microvision have been showing off their latest first-person shooter prototype, which straps a PicoP projector to a gun controller and responds to movement. Players can physically turn around to move their in-game perspective, with the projector's "infinite focus" meaning that the picture is always crisp no matter that the distance between pico and wall keeps shifting.
Video demo after the cut
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Qualcomm mirasol gaming ereader concept plus video demo
Remember the Qualcomm mirasol ebook reader prototype we we exclusively showed you yesterday? One thing we weren’t allowed to photograph – something Qualcomm rectified today – was one of the more interesting attachments they envisage potentially figuring highly: a snap-on gaming controller. The mirasol team won’t confirm any OEM names, but using the low-power displays in gaming hardware looks to be another potential avenue. Plus, after the cut, a video of the mirasol display in action.
Microsoft Research demo prototype glass screen PC with gesture and eye-tracking control
Say what you like about Microsoft, but their Research arm certainly know how to put together an eye-catching demo. Chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie has been doing a tour of US colleges showing off a prototype next-gen computer - among other things - that has a transparent glass display and can be controlled by pen, voice, touch-free gestures and eye-tracking.
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iPhone ARider head-up GPS display for bikers [Video]
The addition of a digital compass to the iPhone 3GS has turned it into an essential city navigation tool for many pedestrians, but what if you're more commonly found on a bike? Japanese firm Ubiquitous Entertainment have put together a prototype called iPhone ARider, which uses a retractable head-mounted display and a 3GS to show live navigation to a biker.
Video demo after the cut
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Rockchip Android MID identified as mystery device [Video]
Now that Archos' Android Internet Tablet has been exposed, it only seems right that the identity of the mysterious slimline Android MID we've been puzzling over these past few weeks should also be confirmed. The touchscreen device is actually a Rockchip concept intended to demonstrate the Chinese chip makers new RK2808 720p-decoding chipset.
Video demos after the cut
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