Could Your Hand Become a Touchscreen? New Technology Makes it Happen
- Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:00am by
Liz Klimas
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Touchscreen technology is improving, with Microsoft researchers developing systems that turn your own body into a keypad and others developing sensors that allow the user to control their phone without removing it from their pocket or purse.
Here’s a review of two Microsoft innovations involving touchscreens.
Although this technology isn’t for an actual touchscreen, it’s related in that it makes it possible to turn your hand, arm, face, leg, table, wall, really any surface imaginable into a touchscreen.
(Photo: Chris Harrison)
“It‘s conceivable that anything you can do on today’s mobile devices, you will be able to do on your hand using OmniTouch,” said Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, in the press release (via Science Daily).
OmniTouch is similar to Microsoft’s Kinect program — which makes XBox interactive — in that it uses a depth-sensing camera that allows you to control interactive applications by tapping or dragging their fingers, just as you would on a regular touchscreen.
Watch how it works:
The examples of how this technology could be used are endless, but a few include turning your hand into a keypad or a regular pad of paper into a tablet for jotting down notes without a pen.
(Photo: Chris Harrison)
OmniTouch includes a depth camera and laser pico-projector, which is mounted on the user’s shoulder. But, according to the release, the device ultimately could be the size of a deck of cards, or even a matchbox, so that it could fit in a pocket, be easily wearable, or be integrated into future handheld devices.
(Photo: Chris Harrison)
OmniTouch is able to sense 3-D motion and whether something is actual “clicked” or just hovering.
Here’s more on how the technology works:
Unlike OmniTouch, which bypasses the need for a screen all together, new technology in prototype form from Microsoft — PocketTouch — saves users from revealing their screen all together. PocketTouch would give users a discreet way to tell incoming callers they’re in a meeting or at a movie, without eve removing their phone from purse or pocket.
(Photo: Microsoft Research)
According to Microsoft Research, the challenges were detection of touch between many types of fabric and phone orientation:
The team resolved this by using an orientation-defining unlock gesture to determine the coordinate plane, thus initializing the device for interaction. Once initialized, user orientation can be from any direction as long as it’s consistent. PocketTouch then separates purposeful finger strokes from background noise and uses them as input.
The next challenge was to process strokes to enable text recognition of characters written over the same small physical area. Happily, the problem of recognizing multistrokes as input turned out to be a matter of adapting existing solutions.
“Microsoft Windows already contains a very rich and adaptive stroke-recognition engine,” [Hrvoje] Benko says. “So if the user is sloppy with strokes—and believe me, when you’re doing it through the pocket of a jacket, the results are sloppy—these systems have the language model to handle it. That made PocketTouch a lot more robust than one would expect, as you can see from the video.”
The phone was also able to sense touch between both a fleece and jacket barrier.
Bento stated that both PocketTouch and OmniTouch are part of Microsoft‘s larger vision for ’unconventional use’ of touch technology.
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banjarmon
Posted on October 20, 2011 at 12:35amBefore long, people will not need a brain…They will say “MY COMPUTER GADGET IS SMARTER THAN YOUR GADGET!!!”
Report Post »Maxim Crux
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 4:33pmI like the feel of the quill and the smell of the parchment thank you very much. God inscribed the 10 commandments in stone for a reason
Report Post »ZengaPA65
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 9:15amOne step closer to the Mark and a lot of the people that post on this site are indirectly cheering for it to come and will openly embrace it. By supporting candidates from the Globalist Fed, or who support the Patriot Act, or who are Bilderburgers, by supporting wars which is the only real purpose is for global domination. Ron Paul is the only guy that’s willing to throw a wrench in all this bs and give us some freedom back from these people.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 11:36amGee. I can already see the police state storm troopers using them to punch in the names of political prisoners whom they want a little extra attention given to.
Report Post »SquishyBear
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 7:50pmwhat the hell are you talking about!? this is cool technology and you are a nut!
Report Post »ZengaPA65
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:37pmReally? Just like people said I was nuts when we attacked Afghanistan and I said we we‘re going there because of the vast mineral resources and to guard a pipeline the Taliban wouldn’t let them build? I’ll stay nuts and you stay ignorant.
Report Post »ChristianConservative76
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 9:13pm“Epidermal (Skin-Grafted) Electronics’ Are Now Closer to Reality”
Report Post »The mark is already possible, look this up. Also in theory every person on earth can be serialized with 3 sets of 6 numbers, 666. Get ready folks. P.S. Ron Paul does not stand with Israel. “I (God) will bless those who bless you (Israel) and will curse those who curse you”
(Gen 12:3) Nuff Said.
ZengaPA65
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 9:26pmRon Paul’s position on Israel is perfect. He wants them to get off the apron strings of those in DC who would try and coerce them into things like pre 67 borders. You didn’t listen to what he said. Israel isn’t there to make it a Christian Disneyland and convert all the Jews despite what Christians think.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:50am“Celluon CL850”
Report Post »Google it.
Available today.
Hickory
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:40amMy hand has been a touch screen ever since I met my beautiful wife. When she touches my hand, I glow all over….. even after 47 years. She is just so beautiful.
Report Post »SLOWBIDEN
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 10:02amcan i throw up now
Report Post »hwyllie
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 11:42amthat’s beautiful man..
Report Post »ozchambers
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 2:41pmAs a sentimental guy who also , like you, is blessed to have an amazing wife that I’ve been with since high school, I’d just like to say that your post still made me want to vomit.
Report Post »closetotheedge
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:05amYes indeed, We are on the edge,when all will be ‘chipped’ and under the control of the one-world system where you can’t crap without the beast knowing where and how much per-pound to charge you and the ‘One Sheet Order’.No peace anywhere in the World,Israel surrounded on all sides. The door is closing. Will you take it or will you stand on the Truth? Just who was this man, Jesus? Only you can answer for yourself.Yes,we are close to the edge..Edge of what?
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 7:20amLooks like the mark of the beast to me.
Report Post »We are Americans
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 7:34amThat’s what I was thinking. Looks
Report Post »like I’ll starve. I won’t be using this technology
welloddyfriggindah
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 7:05amToo funny. It’ll transform into something more useful in a several years…unless the Lord returns sooner. Hold onto your hats.
Report Post »poorrichard09
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 7:51amI agree!
Kinda gives a new meaning to “talk to the hand”! :)
Report Post »tarbush
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:56amThis is such old news. Do a search for Sixth Sense or Pranav Mistry to see the background. It was on ted dotcom about 2.5 years ago.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:45amYep! I couldn’t remember WHERE I saw it, but, I knew this wasn’t “new.”
Report Post »wakeup1
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 6:55amCould Your Hand Become a Touchscreen? New Technology Makes it Happen…..Im pretty sure they will make it happen, and those that don’t want it will suddenly disappear or be found starving to death. No thanks, I’ll take death and join my God and ancestors in liberating this earth from evil. Count on it !
Report Post »Kasey
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:11amSee also; 1980s’ brick phone. I fix video game consoles and computers for people, but I’m also a trained jeweler and illustrator. I don’t feel the need to have my entire life connected with a blackberry just because they exist.
Seriously, I hate that people have this notion that just because something is possible you must do it constantly or not at all. I love tech, but I don’t fear the day that Will Smith is going to have his arm ripped off by a robot. Quite the contrary, actually.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 8:43amLOL
That reminds me of an ad for a portable laptop some years ago.
Report Post »The caption was, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
The photo was a person on a laptop…
… during a funeral !
SC 11 BRAVO
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:23amPerhaps one could project it on the inventors face, then accidentally poke him in the eye,,,sorry just kidding,, However I do see some useful applications for this in PLC based maintenance / programming situations, assuming that eventually it will not require having IMAX projector mounted on your shoulder!
Report Post »BehindBlueEyes
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 5:08amI don’t care how cutting edge this stuff is. There is no way I’m seen anywhere with that on my shoulder.
Report Post »The least they could of done is make the camera look like a parrot.
netmail
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:14amOf course it will have built in GPS, word recognition alert systems, banking, personal and medical info…just like the Mark of the Beast chips we thought were going to be implanted in our foreheads. This must be the new upgrade??
Report Post »tearsforfears
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 1:14amLogan’s Run
Report Post »AmericanStrega
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 11:41pmMy thoughts exactly! BTW all, Logan‘s Run is a movie from the ’70′s (?). If you haven’t seen it, SEE IT. It’s really good.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:47amI think I’ll pass on that. People are so funny. Someday when people have made all the finer things in life forgettable, and machines are everywhere even more, people will say “Let us make man in our image.” And the funny thing is that people already do.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:17amWhat happens when you scratch your butt? Dose the GPS tell you where the closest restroom is??
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 2:30amfunny!
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on October 19, 2011 at 12:17amOne more gadget for the utterly insane.
Report Post »