Hasta La Gadget!

The rise of touchscreen Windows 8 PCs isn’t a happy occasion for anyone who’s been carefully keeping PC screens clean: years of slapping wayward hands have been undermined by an interface that practically begs us to smudge up the display. While we suspect it’s really aiming for ease of use, Elliptic Labs may have heard that subliminal cry for cleanliness while producing its new Windows 8 Gesture Suite, a touchless control system built for a very touch-focused platform. The company’s newest take on ultrasound control can pick up 3D hand motions near the display and invoke all of Windows 8’s edge swipes and scrolling without the extra effort (or grease) of putting skin to screen. The method doesn’t need a one-to-one map of the screen and can work even in pitch darkness, which leaves adoption mostly dependent on hardware support rather than any wary users — despite immediate availability for the SDK, PCs need extra microphones and transducers to drop the touch layer. If computers with the Gesture Suite arrive in the hoped-for 12 to 14 months, though, we can get back to obsessing over a fingerprint-free LCD while saving some physical strain in the process.

Continue reading Elliptic Labs develops touchless gesture control for Windows 8, assuages our fear of fingerprints (video)

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Software

Elliptic Labs develops touchless gesture control for Windows 8, assuages our fear of fingerprints (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 06:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a less gelatin-centric demo, the Harvard-based team behind the Robotically Steerable Probe showed off some Robopsy devices during our visit to the school, rings that can help medical imaging technology like CT, ultrasound and MR physically pinpoint precise locations on patients. The devices, which can hold up to ten needles, are lightweight, mounting directly on patients via adhesives or straps. The medical robots are made largely of inexpensive injection molded plastic parts, making them disposable after they’ve been used on a patient, popping the motors and other control electronics onto another device. In all, the team says Robopsy rings are “orders of magnitude” cheaper and lighter than other medical robotic devices. Check out a video of the one of the Robopsy devices running after the break.

Continue reading Robopsy is a low-cost, disposable patient-mounted medical robot

Filed under: Robots

Robopsy is a low-cost, disposable patient-mounted medical robot originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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