Hasta La Gadget!

Disney’s Touché concept can turn many ordinary objects into touch sensors. But what if you could buy materials such as wood, foil or paper that were already touch-sensitive off the shelf? That’s one of the dreams of a group called Embodied Interaction. To prove that the idea is applicable, the group made sheets of flexible and cuttable multi-touch sensors.

According to researchers Simon Olberding, Nan-Wei Gong, John Tiab, Joseph A. Paradiso, and Dr. Jürgen Steimle, their multi-touch sensor works even when parts of it are cut because of two main factors: how the electrodes – the points that sense touch – are wired to their connectors and where the connectors are located.

As the group claimed in their research paper (pdf), in conventional touch sensors electrodes are arranged in a flat grid and are wired to the connectors and to each other, as seen above. This presents two problems. First, several electrodes are dependent on one wire. Also, because the connectors are located at the edges of the sensor, you can’t damage or cut out those edges or you’ll leave the whole sheet useless. That won’t cut it for a cuttable sensor. In addition, conventional touch sensors are not made of materials that are hard to cut using ordinary tools.

What the research team did is to come up used circuit printing technology to make flexible multi-touch sensor sheets, in which the connectors are at the center of each sheet and the wires connect to as few electrodes as possible. In what they call the star topology, each electrode has its own wire to the connector. A second arrangement called the tree topology there are a few central wires that branch out and handle their own batch of electrodes.

The end result is a multi-touch sensor that can be cut into a variety of shapes, although obviously they couldn’t cut a hole in the middle of the sheet.

Of course, the challenge of wiring these touch-sensing sheets to a microcomputer is another matter altogether. Still, it would be nice if you could build your own touch-sensitive furniture, gadget or tools. Haed to Embodied Interaction’s website for more information on the concept.

[via PSFK]

The keyboard was a technological spin on the piano, and in that way really changed the instrument, but the keyboard itself has not really adapted to take advantage of modern tech. But TouchKeys, a new Kickstarter project that launched recently, introduces a way to add multi-touch input to any keyboard with a DIY kit, exponentially changing the range of expression possible when playing.

Created by London’s Andrew McPherson, the TouchKeys multi-touch musical keyboard is available in both DIY and pre-installed versions, and adds touch-sensitive surfaces to the keyboard’s keys that use capacitive input (just like that used in smartphone screens) to convey touch data that can then translate into vibrato, pitched bends, additional sounds and more via software plugins for popular audio programs like Kontakt, Logic Pro X and Reason.

The end result is that you can add a number of effects to your music that normally have to be added afterward or controlled via clumsy sliders and wheels while playing, in real-time, on the very keyboard where you’re playing the original composition itself.  Each key supports up to three separate touches, and the set uses USB 2.0 to connect to your computer.

McPherson developed the TouchKeys over two years at the University of London’s Centre for Digital Music, and at Drexel University. McPherson has ample experience researching and creating innovative music projects, and previously designed the magnetic resonator piano, a modified piano that can generate new sounds acoustically from the piano strings themselves (sort of an analog version of the TouchKeys in many ways). McPherson is an assistant professor in digital media at Queen Mary University of London and has completed graduate schooling in engineering and music at MIT, the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel.

The TouchKeys are going to be made entirely in the U.K., and the pre-built editions will be hand-assembled at Queen Mary and the London Music Hackspace, hence the limit of 50 on pre-orders of the pre-built editions. Pre-installed editions start at £660 (just over $1,000 U.S.), and both they and the kits should ship around January 2014 if everything goes according to plan.

It’s not cheap (the basic 25-key DIY kit costs £330) but it’s a unique experience for musicians and researchers that could be a precursor to a very different kind of musical keyboard to come, should the tech get commercialized and adopted by keyboard manufacturers.

This high-def full HD (1920×1080) LCD with optical touch panel sensor is compatible with multi-touch (2 points) functionality and Windows 8 and Windows 7 products. It includes high contrast ratios (5,000,000:1) and an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9.
It uses a toughened glass filter that protects the screen from scratch damage, has HDMI terminal, HDCP compatible digital input terminal (DVI-D), 1W+1W stereo speaker, and Eco Mode that reduces power consumption. A touch pen …

Scientists and researchers around the world are always investigating better ways to help children learn important subjects like math and science. A group of researchers at Durham University has been working for the last three years on a project to design and develop the classroom of the future. The project is called SynergyNet and hopes to help children learn mathematics more efficiently.

The location is referred to as the “Star Trek” classroom because it replaces individual desks with futuristic communal desks featuring a multitouch surface. All of those desks are linked to a main “smartboard” used by the teacher. The desks allow students to work collaboratively on solving problems in ways that traditional pen and paper are likely to limit.

According to the researchers working on the project they have found that 45% of students who use the high-tech classroom increased the number of unique mathematical expressions they created after using the system. In contrast, only 16% of students who used the traditional paper-based method increased the number of unique mathematical expressions they created.

The system has a way to go before it might show up in classrooms around the world. Some notable holdbacks at this point are the cost of the system and the complexity of maintaining it.

[via Eurekalert]

In addition to trotting out a new Windows 8 Ultrabook and putting its Windows RT tablet up for pre-order, Dell just announced its first multi-touch display along with a wireless trackpad optimized for Win 8. Starting with the 23-inch S2340T, it has 1080p resolution and a 90-degree articulating stand that allows the display to lie nearly face-up. At the base, you’ll find various inputs, including USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort and Ethernet. There’s also a webcam up top for those of you who plan on giving the new version of Skype a try. Meanwhile, the TP713 (pictured) is a Magic Trackpad-style touchpad designed to support Windows 8 gestures, such as swiping in from the left to toggle through applications. Both are up on Dell’s site now, with the monitor priced at $650 and the trackpad going for $70. Both are expected to begin shipping this week.

Filed under: Displays, Peripherals, Dell

Dell announces its first multi-touch monitor, the S2340T, and a wireless trackpad for Windows 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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