Last year, we showed you an early prototype of technology from Tactus Technology which can turn a flat screen into a tactile surface. Now, at CES 2013, Tactus is showing off a full 7-inch tablet that uses the technology to dynamically add a keyboard to the screen only when needed.
This breakthrough tech is truly the stuff of science-fiction, adding a keyboard you can actually feel beneath your fingertips when you need it, and then instantly retracting back into the display when you don’t. Check it out in action in the short video clip below:
Amazing stuff, no? There’s no word on when the first consumer products with Tactus displays will hit the market, but I certainly can’t wait to get my hands on one. If you’re fortunate enough to be at CES this week, you can see the Tactus tablet up close and personal at booth #75110 on the 3rd floor of the Venetian.
It might sound funny when you hear about some poor commuter getting stuck in the door of the subway, but it’s actually pretty dangerous. I know I wouldn’t want it to happen to me.
It’s something that can potentially happen to any one of us – especially on a crowded train – and designer Hyun Ju Park thinks he can tackle it with his Subway Signal Light concept.
Basically, it involves the installation of an illuminated indicator on the subway door to give passengers a visual warning of when they should board the train, when they should hurry, and when they should just wait for the next one. It uses the familiar green means “go”, yellow means “slow down” “hurry up” and red means “stop” color scheme.
It’s easy to ‘read’ and interpret the warnings and the slim, modern design doesn’t look half bad, either.
There’s still room for improvement but I’d really like to see signs like these up and running on public transportation soon. What do you think?
Compared to the rather sloth-like USB 2.0 port, the current USB 3.0 ports found on some computers and notebooks on the market today are insanely fast. The original USB 3.0 port support data transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps. The original USB 3.0 data transfer rate was enough to keep the lust for speed of your typical computer enthusiast sated for a while, but as with all things, now we all want more.
The USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced at CES 2013 that a new specification is in the works that will double the performance of the existing USB 3.0 port. Using the new specification, a USB 3.0 port will be able to transfer data at up to 10 Gbps, about the same as single-channel Thunderbolt.
Along with twice the data throughput, the new specification also offers improved I/O power efficiency. The improved spec is backwards-compatible with existing USB 3.0 software stacks and device class protocols. That means that the port will work with existing 5 Gbps hubs and devices as well as older USB 2.0 products. The new port specification is up for industry review during Q1 of this year, and hope to start releasing products that take advantage of the improvements later in the year.
Days before CES 2013, a mysterious new tablet computer has emerged, along with a short film that gives us a brief look at the device. Apparently, the enchantMOON is some sort of “hypertext authoring tablet” designed for the creation of HTML5 content.
Specifically, enchantMOON is described as “a digitizer pen-driven tablet device designed to let anyone program and share HTML5 games, applications, and interactive publications without writing code.” Presumably, the tablet renders code using the Open Source enchant.js framework, since it appears they’re both coming from the same company, Ubiquitous Entertainment.
The concept sketches here by designer Yoshitoshi Abe doesn’t really tell us much about the tablet, other than the fact that it doesn’t look like any other tablet out there.
Nor does the early prototype photo taken here with Ubiquitious Entertainment CEO Ryo Shimizu:
Image: AV Watch
It’s got a science-fictiony look to it that makes it look like some sort of gadget out The Matrix, with a built in handle that can be used for carrying or as a stand. From an article over on Japan’s AV Watch [JP], I’ve gleaned that the tablet will have a magnesium alloy body, and a 7-inch screen. It will also have a minimal user white-on-black interface which is centered around the use of handwriting recognition and converting drawn images to vector art. Specs are sketchy at this point, but it appears that it will run on a ARM Cortex A8 CPU with a Mali400 GPU, with Android deep under the hood.
Image: AV Watch
And to go along with the Sci-Fi/Anime theme, they’ve created an enchantMOON short film series, inspired by Alduos Huxley’s Brave New World, and directed by Hiroaki Yuasa. Japanese film director and animator Shinji Higuchi(Evangelion, Gamera, The Floating Castle) is also involved in the project as “CVO” – Chief Visionary Officer. Gee, I’d like a title like that. I guess since I’m the boss, I can do that.
Here’s the first part:
And here’s part two:
Nope, still doesn’t tell us much about the tablet, but they’re definitely going after a part of the market that other tablet makers haven’t been too successful at – content authoring. I think my iPad is a stellar device for content consumption, but I’ll still take my desktop or laptop over it in a heartbeat for web development and authoring. I’m hoping that they’ve got something special up their sleeves, but if nothing else, they’ve piqued my curiosity.
We’ll have to wait a few days until CES starts to find out what all the mystery is about enchantMOON, but I’m definitely intrigued.
A Japanese company called G-cluster is looking to succeed where OnLive failed – make cloud gaming mainstream. It will demonstrate it’s capabilities later this month at CES 2013, but it has already released a handful of details regarding its service.
Based on a September 2012 press release (pdf), the G-cluster streaming service works similarly to OnLive – users plug in a “Game Machine” into their HDTV’s HDMI port (and into a USB port for power), which will connect to G-cluster’s game servers via Wi-Fi. Unlike OnLive however, G-cluster mentioned that users will be able to use their mobile devices as gamepads or controllers, but “generic gamepads” will also be supported. Maybe the Game Machine has Bluetooth capability or additional USB ports.
G-cluster says it has partnered with a variety of developers and publishers to bring games to their service. These companies include heavyweights such as Disney Interactive Studios, Ubisoft and PopCap as well as the likes of Frozenbyte (Trine, Shadowgrounds) and mobile game publisher Bulkypix. The company also mentioned that their service can also be used to deliver on-demand video to TVs and mobile devices. But as of now, the thing I like the most about G-cluster is their commercial:
The family that fights together, is Japanese. Head to G-cluster’s website for more information or you can wait shortly after January 9, which is when the company’s media event at CES 2013 will be held.
A group of scientists and engineers from the University of Zürich’s Artificial Intelligence Lab has unveiled a robot called Roboy. While their intentions are good, this creepy-looking robot reminds me of an adolescent, hydrocephalic, Terminator sent back in time to destroy mankind. But that’s not what it’s designed for – the team working on the project hope that it might be a sort of blueprint for human service robots.
Eventually, the robot will be covered with a soft skin and make it more comfortable for humans to touch and look at. The design uses a series of mechanical actuators to allow the robot to move around freely combined with artificial tendons. The use of these artificial tendons allows the robot to mimic human movement.
The designers of the robot say that it is still in the construction phase. So far, the team has completed the robot’s torso, leg development, a CAD model of the entire robot, and other tasks. In the middle of December, the team announced that the robot had its face and could move its arms. To finance the completion of Roboy, the researchers and engineers have taken the unique approach of selling ad space on the robot’s body.
We’ve seen a number of multitouchtables over the years, with the most notable being Microsoft’s PixelSense (formerly known as Surface). But most of these have very large screens and are designed for coffee tables or larger installations. Now, a Korean company called Moneual is set to release a touchscreen PC that’s built into a small cafe table.
While specs and pricing for the The Moneual Touch Table PC have yet to be revealed, it’s clear that the table is ideal for use in places like restaurants and cafes. It could be used to display menus and accept orders in place of printed ones, and also is capable of accepting payments right at the table as well, using what appears to be an NFC reader of some sort. It seems like a pretty cool idea, and certainly would reduce the number of errors that servers make with taking orders. I imagine the same system could be used to let you play games or even surf the internet while you wait for your food.
The Moneual Touch Table PC will be shown off at CES from January 8-11, 2013.
No matter how you feel about Apple, you have to admit that the company did change the smartphone world when it unveiled the first iPhone 5-1/2 years ago. Apple then came back and set the tablet world on its ear with the iPad. Now it’s possible that Apple could be set to try to change the world of wristwatches.
Rumors are circulating that Apple and Intel are working on a new smartwatch product that will debut in 2013. Sources in China claim that Apple is working on smartwatch. This particular rumor helps make sense of the redesign of the iPod nano away from its watch-friendly square face, despite the popularity of wristbandaccessories and various Kickstartedsmartwatch projects out there.
According to Chinese sources, the smartwatch would be Bluetooth enabled and have a 1.5-inch touchscreen display. The watch would be designed to work directly with the iPhone allowing users to make phone calls and perform other functions from their wrist. Other smartphone integrating watches have been on the market before and have proven unsuccessful, which makes this fertile ground for Apple to sow.
It’s worth noting that Apple rumors never cease and some products, such as an actual Apple HDTV and touchscreen iMacs, and have never materialized despite ongoing rumors.
Japanese security firm Secom is preparing to launch a new service that will let home and small business owners rent a quadcopter drone that the company claims will launch automatically in the event of a burglary, taking pictures of the burglars and even capturing live video of them as the crime is in progress. Sounds pretty awesome if you want the latest in home security. When a breach is detected by motion detectors or other security methods, the quadcopter activates and is dispatched to the precise location of the break-in to get a firsthand, eye-in-the-sky look at things.
If it really works like they say it will, this could catch more criminals and keep your home extra safe. The company is also touting the drones as a cost-effective way to monitor large areas like warehouses and industrial parks without having to mount video cameras everywhere. You can check out a video demo of the (incredibly noisy) drone prototype in action here (skip to 1:54, unless you speak Japanese.)
Secom hopes to launch this new rent-a-drone business in Japanese markets in early 2014 for about ¥5000 (~$58 USD).
A new patent application from Apple has turned up online that shows an interesting process for making curved glass – and potentially hints at new gadgets with such screens. The process starts with a flat piece of glass like you would find on top of a smartphone or other gadget from Apple. The heated glass is then slumped over a contoured form to create a curved piece of glass.
Presumably, this type of glass bending is easier and more efficient than other methods for creating curved glass. Notably, the patent application hints that we could possibly see tablets and smartphones from Apple in the future that have curved screens. However, the contour I see in the patent application looks more like a mouse to me.
Apple is rather famous for its seamless, modern designs so I could see this easily being a way to curve glass to make the touch sensitive surface of the top of a future mouse. Of course, Apple and other manufacturers attempt to patent all sorts of ideas that never get used, so who knows if this technology will ever turn up in an actual product.
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Basically, it involves the installation of an illuminated indicator on the subway door to give passengers a visual warning of when they should board the train, when they should hurry, and when they should just wait for the next one. It uses the familiar green means “go”, yellow means 
