Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s hardware research team today unveiled what it has deemed “Mouse 2.0”: five mouse prototypes aimed at taking advantage of the push toward multi-touch computing, jumpstarted with the introduction of Windows 7. The five mice are still in early concept stages. Each takes a different approach to multi-touch through a complete rehaul of the standard desktop mouse.

All five designs were demoed in a video released online today by the research team. The first mouse highlighted was the FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection), a curved multi-touch design. Microsoft explains: “[The mouse] applies the principle of Frustrated Total Internal Reflection to illuminate a user’s fingers, and uses a camera to track multiple points of touch on its curved translucent surface.”

The Orb Mouse, meanwhile, is aimed largely at gamers. The demo in the video showcased the way it interacts with a first-person shooter. Says Microsoft: “Equipped with an internal camera and a source of diffused infrared illumination, it can track the user’s hand across the [entirety] of its hemispherical surface.”

The Cap Mouse is designed for augmenting GUI features. “[The mouse] uses a matrix of capacitive touch-sensing electrodes to track the position of the user’s fingertips along its surface.”

Arguably the coolest of the bunch, the Side Mouse requires minimal contact with the user’s hand. Rather it uses the company’s proprietary SideSight technology to detect finger and hand movements around the device.

The final mouse, the Arty Mouse, is a bizarre little peripheral aimed at 3D manipulation. Says Microsoft: “[The mouse is] equipped with three optical mouse sensors to track the individual movements of the wrist, thumb, and index finger.”

You can watch the full low-budget video over at the Microsoft Research site.

Look, we admit it: Honda’s U3-X unicycle gave us a bit of a chuckle when we first peeped the video last week. Now look at this, just look at it! Not only does the Honda EV-N Concept steal all the best retro styling from the classic Fiat 500 (or Honda 600 closer to home), it also integrates the miniscule U3-X electric transporter directly into its passenger door frame — adding an additional 22-pounds, at least, in the process. Oh, and this little guy’s electric with a solar roof panel. The EV-N will makes its debut at the Tokyo Motor Show next month where we hope to give it a great big hug just for showing up. A few more pics after the break, fully gallery just beyond that read link.

Continue reading Honda EV-N Concept tucks U3-X personal transporter inside door

Filed under: Transportation

Honda EV-N Concept tucks U3-X personal transporter inside door originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that time when you were just totally stumped for ideas on a new Nike Dunk SB color scheme? Well, if you had a Microsoft Courier — whose interface concepts have now been detailed extensively in a new video on Gizmodo — you’d have little trouble recalling the incident, thanks to fancy tools like an “infinite journal,” “grid” and “search” to keep your little virtual scrapbook in order. On display are new gestures that use both the pen and fingers, and seem a little more obvious and common sense than last time around. Copying and “tucking” an image for instance (clipping it to the black binding in the center) is done with a finger, as is a swipe gesture that pulls up the browser, and another swipe that pulls up the home screen of sorts. The pen is more reserved for annotation and sketching, which seems logical. Your journals of stuff can be shared with browser-bound friends, and even packaged up into a customizable virtual Moleskine, elastic band and all. There are still plenty of missing pieces, like a virtual keyboard or pretty much any apps outside of scrapbooking and web browsing, but this iteration certainly looks a lot less theoretical and complicated than what we’ve seen so far.

Update: ZDNet‘s Mary-Jo Foley has more details from a “connected tipster” about Courier. According to her, Microsoft is running this on top of Windows 7, similar to how Microsoft Surface runs on top of Windows, and that the concept got its start as a reinvention of Microsoft’s OneNote for a strictly tablet form factor. Word is that it’s an “incubation project” (as opposed to a more conjectural Microsoft Research project) and Microsoft is apparently aiming for a mid-2010 release. The wildest part is that Microsoft is “leaning toward” the Xbox model of building the hardware itself, which apparently will help speed things along — and delight hardware partners to no end, we’re sure.

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

New Microsoft Courier video details tablet interface, exciting life of a shoe designer (Update: Windows 7 underneath, might run Microsoft hardware) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, here’s something you don’t see every day: Intel’s got a concept laptop here at IDF that features three OLED touchscreens below the 15-inch screen. In keeping with the hype of the moment, the primary idea is to run widgets and other passive apps on the little screens, but they’re actually integrated with the main screen, so you can flick content up to view it full-size, and even use the mouse to interact with the widgets instead of your fingers. It’s definitely cool, but it’s also definitely a little odd in practice — although Intel says they’re talking to OEMs, things will have to be significantly refined before this can hit production. More pics in the gallery, video after the break.

Continue reading Video: Intel’s four-screen laptop prototype hands-on

Filed under: Laptops

Video: Intel’s four-screen laptop prototype hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC and Motorola may have done their best to whip Android’s interface into shape, but it looks like the folks at Larva Labs still weren’t satisfied with the options available, so they’ve naturally gone ahead and designed their own UI (with a little help from Ideas on Purpose). While it’s unfortunately still just a concept, the firm’s so-called “Intelligent Home Screen” does bring plenty of interesting ideas to the table, which Larva Labs says should help it “appeal to Blackberry owners and people struggling with information overload.” The centerpiece of the concept is a home screen divided by a (slightly familiar looking) slider bar, which puts personal items like emails up top and general interest stuff on the bottom, with relevant apps accessed by the icon on the right-hand side of the screen, and everything else relegated to a separate menu. Hit up the read link below to check it out in action.

Filed under: Cellphones

Larva Labs proposes ‘intelligent’ Android home screen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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