Hasta La Gadget!

This week a set of developers hoping to create a new way for users to use touchscreen-based keyboards have seem some significant success, finding 873% of their goal met in their first crowdfunded venture. The app environment these developers have presented is “Minuum Keyboard”, one created for Android devices initially, here showing off the entire English alphabet in a single row near the bottom of a smartphone or tablet screen. Having met their Indegogo goal several times over, they’re now headed for a June release for the software in beta.

In an interesting twist to the original goals set out by the group, this project’s development was advanced past it’s first Android confines with a WDK as well. A WDK, or Wearable Development Kit, provides the user with a keyboard for many prospective devices. In the video presentation made by the creators of this project, you’ll see this keyboard typing with 3D motion control too.

The setup for the keyboard in its initial layout comes from the QWERTY setup you’re likely making use of on your notebook, smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer right this minute. Taking these letters and smashing them down into what’s essentially one row instead of three, the space which the keyboard would otherwise have taken up is reduced significantly.

What these developers are studying and banking on is the idea that users will be able to adapt as easily as they have to the simplicity of the layout they’ve created. While like riding a bike, you can get used to typing with such a setup, there’s still a learning curve that’s being dealt with. According to the funds this team has received in support of their development thus far, there are more than enough people out there willing to give Minuum a shot!

Let us know if you’re working with the standard on-screen keyboard on your smartphone or tablet and why. Did you know you were able to change the keyboard on your device before you read this post?

[via Indegogo]

Minuum Android keyboard sparks crowdfund interest with one-row layout is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Touchscreen technology has certainly come a long way since it first made its way to the market, and just about any self-respecting mobile device these days ought to be equipped with its very own touchscreen display. There has been advancements made to this area of technology over the years, and recently, we read about how Fujitsu managed to offer new levels of interactivity with their touchscreen, and here we are with the Obake from Dhairya Dand and Rob Hemsley of MIT’s Media Lab, which is actually stretchable or elastic in nature, paving the way for numerous forms of possible manipulation.

The “screen” per se is located on an elastic surface, where it would enable the user to push, pull and pinch it. There will be depth cameras located around so that it can measure these pushes, pulls and pinches in order to enable the surface display to emulate just what you have done with your fingers. At the end of the day, the display remains two-dimensional, although the screen itself will in theory, be pulled in three dimensions.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Russian Cosmonaut Is Oldest Spacewalker At 59, Yahoo Will Discontinue A Few Services Later This Month,

With the HTC One hitting the streets in the United States very, very soon, we thought it time to take a peek at what the good folks at Spigen SGP had to offer in the way of screen protection. As it turns out, the protection of the display you’ve got on the HTC One is just about the easiest job a screen protection company will ever have as it’s just one big rectangle. Of course you don’t want to slap on just any old protector when it comes to your several hundred dollar machine though, so it’s Spigen SGP to the rescue!

What we’ve got here is the HTC One Ultra Crystal Steinheil “enhanced optical hard coated film.” It ends up protecting your display with a single sheet of hard coated 4H over back and forth, up and down, and adding the protector is easy as pie. With a Spigen SGP screen protector you’ve got only to peel off one side, stick it flat, peel the other side, and poof- there it is.

What you’re seeing above and below is the HTC One’s display set to a bit dimmer setting than what it’s capable of – the transparency of the screen protector we’re looking at here is absolute. There’s no discernable effect on the brightness or the sharpness of the screen when you place this protector on.

Be sure to check out our HTC One Review as well as our AT&T HTC One Review for all the HTC One action you can handle!

You need no special spray to stick this film to your smartphone’s display, you’ll have just as much touch sensitivity as you had before applying, and you’ll no longer have to worry about gouges and scratches from the top of your reinforced glass to the bottom. This protector is going to run you $13.99 USD and is available right this minute straight from Spigen SGP!

This isn’t the first screen protector, case, or other oddity we’ve seen from Spigen SGP – in fact that’s rather far from the truth! Those fabulous folks at Spigen SGP have been sending review units to SlashGear for many moons now, and we’ve never been let down – have a peek at the timeline below for a few more looks at Spigen SGP gear and let us know what you’d like us to look at next!

HTC One screen protection gets serious with Spigen SGP’s Steinheil is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a next generation user interface which can accurately detect the users finger and what it is touching, creating an interactive touchscreen-like system, using objects in the real word.

“We think paper and many other objects could be manipulated by touching them, as with a touchscreen. This system doesn’t use any special hardware; it consists of just a device like an ordinary webcam, plus a commercial projector. Its capabilities are achieved by image processing technology.”

Using this technology, information can be imported from a document as data, by selecting the necessary parts with your finger.

This technology measures the shape of real-world objects, and automatically adjusts the coordinate systems for the camera, projector, and real world. In this way, it can coordinate the display with touching, not only for flat surfaces like tables and paper, but also for the curved surfaces of objects such as books.

“Until now, gesturing has often been used to operate PCs and other devices. But with this interface, we’re not operating a PC, but touching actual objects directly, and combining them with ICT equipment.”

“The system is designed not to react when you make ordinary motions on a table. It can be operated when you point with one finger. What this means is, the system serves as an interface combining analog operations and digital devices.”

To detect touch accurately, the system needs to detect fingertip height accurately. In particular, with the low-resolution camera used here (320 x 180), if fingertip detection is off by a single pixel, the height changes by 1 cm. So, the system requires technology for recognizing fingertips with high precision.

“Using a low-res webcam gives a fuzzy picture, but the system calculates 3D positions with high precision, by compensating through image processing.”

This system also includes technology for controlling color and brightness, in line with the ambient light, and correcting for individual differences in hand color. In this way, it can identify fingertips consistently, with little influence from the environment or individual differences.

Also, in situations that don’t use touch, the system can be operated by gesturing. In this demo, when you move your fist, you can manipulate the viewpoint for 3D CAD data. So, there could be applications for this touch system by combining it with current gesture systems.

“For example, we think this system could be used to show detailed information at a travel agent’s counter, or when you need to fill in forms at City Hall.”

“We aim to develop a commercial version of this system by fiscal 2014. It’s still at the demonstration level, so it’s not been used in actual settings. Next, we’d like to get people to use it for actual tasks, see what issues arise, and evaluate usability. We want to reflect such feedback in this system.”

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I was shocked at what I had just done, so I laughed out loud. I was there, in a house in the Swiss mountains, lying comfortably on a sofa. I was reading Canetti’s Crowds and Power, a solid 400-page book. And then, as my eyes were approaching the end of yet another page, I swiped upwards. More »