Maximum PC multi-touch RSS Feed

Wacom Tablets Finally Get Multi-Touch and Gestures

Paul Lilly — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:30:35 -0500

Good news for anyone who's been eyeing up Wacom's Bamboo line. The tablet maker announced it has added multi-touch and gestures to its Bamboo devices, giving users another dimension beyond the traditional pressure sensitive pen, Wired.com reports.

Three new models were introduced, including the pen only, touch-only, and one that does both. Each one comes with 512 pressure levels in the pen tip, with the active area of the tablets measuring 5.8 x 3.6 inches. The multi-touch and gestures support means users can now navigate, click, double-click, right-click, scroll, select & drag, rotate, zoom, and perform other functions all with finger taps or finger movements.

Both the Touch and Pen models are priced at $70, while the Pen & Touch runs a cool C-note.

Hard Case: Where’s My Multi-Touch?

Loyd Case — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:30:00 -0500

Using a mouse with a 24 megapixel display is problematic. Loyd wants another solution to manage all those displays.

So AMD’s ATI graphics division has got something in the works that supports up to six monitors.

If you’ve ever navigated even two displays with a mouse, you may realize something: multiple, high-resolution displays may be outstripping the mouse’s capability as a primary user interface tool. Now toss in six 30-inch monitors – 24 whopping megapixels in all – and you’ve got a real problem. Even if you drop that to six more affordable 1920x1080 displays, that’s still over 12 megapixels you need to navigate. Just visually tracking the mouse cursor becomes problematic.

Still, it's a setup I’d love to have.

What’s needed for huge pixel-count displays is multi-touch. Windows 7 now incorporates an actually useful multi-touch display capability, but it’s currently relegated to all-in-one PCs with multi-touch, a handful of laptops, and the expensive (at $12,500 a pop) Microsoft Surface.

Still, multi-touch isn’t perfect. If you’re a heavy Photoshop user, you need a high degree of precision in selection, sometimes down to the pixel level. For that, a high DPI mouse is indispensible. What would be better in a system with three to six displays would be a combination of multi-touch and a good mouse.

But affordable multi-touch monitors are nowhere to be found. The only desktop display I could find was one by Albatron that was announced back in 2007. But just try actually buying one – you can’t.

You can find multi-touch in all-in-one desktops, like HP’s TouchSmart PCs. Recently, Lenovo announced a Thinkpad model, the T400s, with a multi-touch displays. A touch sensitive display (that’s not just a tablet PC) makes sense – it’s more useful for normal office work than the touch pads that grace most laptops today.

So where are the multi-touch monitors for desktop PCs? Other than the vaporware Albatron announcement, I haven’t seen any major LCD manufacturer announce multi-touch displays. You’d need the proper connectivity, of course, but an additional USB connection should cover that. Given the additional electronics needed for the touch-sensitive interface, a multi-touch display would cost more – but it wouldn’t have to be a huge cost uplift. I’d pay $50 more for a multi-touch 24-inch display, for example.

If large scale display technologies, like AMD’s Eyefinity, are going to be successful, we need to move beyond mouse and keyboard. If multi-touch monitors aren’t available, there’s another route: gesture recognition.

In fact, incorporating gesture recognition would be easy in a 3-display setup. The reason is the increasing number of desktop displays with built-in webcams. Imagine a 3-display setup. The center display might be something large, like a 30-incher. The two “surround” displays could be 24-inch units, each with a built-in webcam. They could be mounted in portrait or landscape mode. The outboard units with the webcam need software that could “read” gestures from the user. Given the separation of the webcams, you could imagine software that could interpret gestures in 3D space, allowing for a larger variety of gestures.

Four or six displays in a flatter arrangement wouldn’t be harder, since you could still have enough separation between webcams for this to work correctly.

Of course, Microsoft’s already done something like this – it’s called Project Natal. Alas, it’s the Xbox group that’s doing this, not the Windows group. If Microsoft could get the Windows group to do a webcam-based gesture recognition interface for Windows 7, I suspect users would be all over it.

As noted, you’d still need a mouse for more precise work. But the mouse would be an adjunct to the primary user interface, much like pen tablets. Pen tablets have already supplanted mice for certain kinds of precision graphics or CAD work.

Given all those webcams, many of which are capable of facial recognition, I’m surprised this hasn’t become a commercial product yet. With Windows 7 arriving soon, as well as AMD’s Eyefinity, maybe someone will pick this ball up and run with it. I’m waiting, credit card in hand…

Hands-On with Lenovo's Multi-touch Thinkpad T400s

Florence Ion — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:00:00 -0500

When we last visited the Lenovo Thinkpad T400s, we gave it a relatively good score based on its sleek, black matte chassis, its comfortable ergonomic keyboard and its reliable on-the-go specifications, which included a 128GB SSD. Now, the T400s has had a minor overhaul in hardware (including a touchscreen LCD) and software and we were lucky enough to get some hands-on playtime with the still-in-beta SimpleTap multi-touch software.

This version of the T400s now includes a capacitive multi-touch screen, which integrates the finger-gesture actions a tablet PC into the desktop interface. Tap twice with your index and middle-finger to initiate the proprietary SimpleTap interface; you’ll be able to control the basic functions of your computer from this menu, including the brightness of the display and the audio settings, as well as any hot keys and web pages you may want to bookmark. Additionally, you can use your fingers instead of the Multi-touch Touchpad or the TrackPoint joystick to navigate around Windows, though we found that using touch to hit small Desktop icons was a chore.

The SimpleTap Menu, which pops up when you tap the screen twice with both your index- and middle-finger

This Simple Tap feature reminds us a lot of the iPhone home screen, with each transparent square tile functioning as its own application. In essence, SimpleTap accomodates new customizable hot keys that are not embedded into the hardware, and can be switched out and utilized in any manner the user prefers.You canadd custom application links or even bookmarks to your favorite websites.

The SimpleTap menu icons can be arranged however you like. Some buttons bring up other options, like the volume menu in the top left corner.

Though it seems to be a bit of an overkill for a laptop that does not have a reversible swivel LCD screen, we can see how the touchscreen could benefit professionals that do not have the luxury of having an external mouse or a tablet with them at all times—like graphic designers, doctors, and engineers using Auto Cad. The screen however, isn't a pen-based digitizer, so you'll have to rely on your fingers.

SimpleTap is currently still in beta mode and the multi-touch gestures are not supported by all programs. Regardless, the new T400s comes equipped with Windows 7 and the Microsoft Touch Pack, which includes a handful of nifty games, a touch enabled screen saver, and the Microsoft Surface Collage, which allows you to arrange your photos into a collage for your desktop. Though it may seem a little out of place to include a touch screen on a non-tablet computer, we’re excited to see if more laptop makers will adopt this hardware in the future.

Adobe's Mobile Flash to Come Equipped with Accelerometer, Multi-touch Support

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:15:43 -0500

On Tuesday, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch reiterated the company’s promise to release a beta version of its Flash 10 player for mobiles by the end of this year. He was addressing analysts at an event specially organized for them. He went on to add that the mobile version of Flash will begin making full use of APIs by the beginning of next year. This will allow the mobile variant of Flash to fully tap such hardware features as multi-touch and accelerometer, which are found on an increasing number of smartphones.

Redmond Sweetens Deal for Windows 7 Touch PC Buyers with Touch Pack

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:41:22 -0500

You've seen the demos of multitouch, and you might even have a PC that supports Windows 7's multitouch, but what can you do with it? If you're in the market for a PC that supports multi-touch, Microsoft is making a multitouch PC even more appealing by announcing its Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7.

Microsoft Touch Pack is a product of the collaboration between the Windows and Surface development teams, and as a result, Microsoft Touch Pack includes three Microsoft Surface applications and three casual games. Here's what you get:

Microsoft Surface Globe enables you to navigate the Virtual Earth 3D version of the world by touch, and lets you get local information as you "fly" by particular places.
Microsoft Surface Collage brings one of the original Microsoft Surface "touch and move the photos" demos to life, adding the ability to convert a collage into a desktop background.
Microsoft Surface Lagoon is a multi-touch enabled screensaver - watch fish gather around your "submerged" finger.
Casual gamers can enjoy the Rube Goldbergesque Microsoft Blackboard, a mashup of death rays and air hockey in Microsoft Rebound, and float origami on the water in Microsoft Garden Pond.

Who gets first crack at the Microsoft Touch Pack? From the Windows Team blog annoucement:

The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 will be available to PC makers (OEMs) who will have the option to pre-install some, none, or all of the applications available in the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 on PCs designed for Windows Touch (PCs that meet the logo requirements for Windows Touch) – so you should start to see these applications showing up on some touch PCs around the time Windows 7 is made broadly available. After general availability of Windows 7, we will look at making the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 even more broadly available based on feedback from customers and partners.

Hopefully, the Microsoft Touch Pack will become available via download at some point for those of us with existing multitouch-compatible PCs. In the meantime, if you're getting ready to buy a PC with a touchscreen after Windows 7 rolls out this fall, you now have two questions to ask:

Does it support multi-touch?
Does it include Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7?

Hit Comment and tell us what you think about Touch Pack.

Moixa Announces Patent for Baffling "Sphere" Peripheral

Paul Lilly — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:03:36 -0500

We're not sure what to make of Moixa's 'Sphere' I/O interface device, for which the company was recently awarded a patent. Moixa describes the device as an "apple sized multi-touch sphere that can be used to display the world (e.g. Google Earth), browse web pages, or control interactive games." Sounds intriguing.

Moixa says the device also weighs about the same as an apple, and can be collapsed to be either used or stored in its second form. This could change, of course, as the concept remains in render form, just as Art.Lebedev's OLED keyboard did before a shipping product finally emerged.

"In the future, phones and portable computing devices reduce to input/output and power. Sphere reinvents the look and feel of the advanced portable device as we rely more on services, memory and mapping stored on the web," commented Simon Daniel, Moixa founder.

Image Credit: Gizmodo

Anyone see this concept becoming an actual product? Hit the jump and post your thoughts.

Did Apple Bully Google over Multi-Touch?

Paul Lilly — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:58:55 -0600

It's hard to imagine anyone being able to bully Google into submission, but according to Venture Beat, that's exactly what Apple did. The report claims Apple encouraged Google not to use multi-touch technology in the Android-based G1 mobile phone, and Google agreed, Venture Beat says citing an un-named Android team member as the source.

"Further, the Android team member went on to say that they were relieved that Google didn't go against Apple's wishes, given the legal storm that appears to be brewing between Apple and Palm, which is using multi-touch technology in its new Pre phone," Venture Beat writes.

And that might not be the only influence Apple had on the G1 handset. According to technology blogger John Gruber, a source told him Apple also took issue with a pre-release G1 prototype Google showed to them over its standard headphone jack. The unidentified source claims Apple owns a patent on "controlling software using buttons connected by a standard 3.5mm headphone jack (at least for music and video playback controls), and would not grant Google a license to the patent."

Getting back to the multi-touch issue, it will be interesting to see if future Android-based handsets implement the technology, even with the threat of a lawsuit lingering.

Image Credit: Google

Microsoft Developer Shows You How to Make a DIY Surface

Paul Lilly — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:00:54 -0600

If you followed David Murphy's path to building a budget PC with a cardboard chassis, then why not compliment it with your own homebrewed Surface, also with a cardboard exterior?

Microsoft technology evangelist Paul Foster posted a YouTube video showing how you can build a functioning multi-touch surface using budget parts. Items you'll need are paper, scissors, picture frame with glass, tape, cardboard box, a webcam, and multi-touch software such as Touchlib.

From start to finish, it takes Foster less than four minutes to complete the project and run a short demonstration. Of course, that's with a cardboard box - skilled modders will want to invest a bit more time coming up with custom enclosure.

Watch the video here and tell us what you think.