Touch Screen Gadget

Haptic feedback benefits and values

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

A summary of recent published findings on the value of haptic feedback in human-computer interaction.

A key advantage of computer-driven interfaces is the flexibility provided by a programmable, dynamic display. A single touch panel can replace many mechanical buttons, switches, and knobs, and provide increased communication with the user. But the transition from mechanical knobs,
switches, and dials to electronic controls poses a challenge to interface designers: the expected tactile cues aren’t there.

As the scientific studies reviewed here indicate, haptic (tactile) feedback provides several benefits,
not the least of which is, according to research performed by NCR (NCR 2004), that it provides
an essential component in human-computer interaction (HCI) and has a quantifiable effect
on efficiency and error rates as well as user satisfaction.

Types of Haptic Feedback

Haptic feedback can be broadly divided into two modalities: vibrotactile and kinesthetic. Vibrotactile
feedback stimulates human subcutaneous tissue. It’s been employed in mobile phones, video console gamepads, and certain touch panels. Kinesthetic feedback focuses on the gross movement of the human body. It’s been employed in medical simulation
trainers, programmable haptic knobs, video game steering wheels, and virtual reality systems,
such as Immersion’s CyberForce® system. “Force feedback” is a term often used to describe vibrotactile and/or kinesthetic feedback.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Tenori-On Sequencing

Posted by admin | Category: Industry, Music & Entertainment

Tenori-On is a musical instrument for live electronic music performance, being developed by Yamaha and Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, known for his Nintendo DS game Elektroplankton. When we dreamed about the kinds of instruments we’d be using to make electronic music in the 21st century, this is what many of us most likely conjured up in our minds. A sequence is looped by the machine, and the player uses its 256 dots to activate points on the sequencer, turned on and off by the touch of a finger. To truly understand how awesome this is just watch the video above.

The Tenori-On website claims that “The Tenori-on is both a serious instrument for advanced users and a gateway for people who want to compose electronic music, but have little or no previous experience.” Somehow I doubt the claim that this thing could really be considered a “serious instrument,” but it still looks freaking cool. It will be available in extremely limited release on May 1st, for a rather steep $1200.

Tenori-On: Create - Control - Connect (via Tenori-On website)

Popularity: 2% [?]

2.4-inch Touch Screen MP4 Player

Posted by admin | Category: MP3 Player

A company from China, Xinde introduce a very neatly build iPod navigation like mp4 player. Very impressive features not many have is the E-book function. My bet it could be a Acrobat Reader or STK reader ( china e-book plugin).

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Does Blackberry a worthy iPhone killer?

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone, Smartphone, Trend Watch & News

Many analyst even I also complain that every new touchscreen handset is promoted as an “iPhone killer”, yet I can’t stop posting about them. This “iPhone killer” story is particularly interesting because it’s about that behemoth of the mobile phone world, BlackBerry.

RIM CEO Mike Lazardis isn’t a fan of touchscreens. In a New York Times story about how RIM is reacting to Apple’s assault on the mobile phone market, Lazardis is quoted as saying “I couldn’t type on [the iPhone’s glass screen] and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it”. Despite their lord and master’s misgivings, RIM is still hard at work producing the BlackBerry touchscreen. RIM engineers have dubbed the long-rumoured touchscreen BlackBerry the “the A.K. – for Apple Killer”. Brave words indeed, RIM engineers.

The NYT article also revealed that BlackBerry’s tactic is to stick close to carriers. This is the opposite to the approach adopted by Apple and Google, who are trying to “dislodge the carriers from the nexus of the North American wireless market”. BlackBerry partner with 350 carriers around the world, and they often sell heavily discounted BlackBerry handsets. Apple sells the iPhone from its own stores and calls the shots with its carriers, offering them comparatively stingy deals. Google has been (unsuccessfully) bidding for wireless spectrum this year, in an attempt to force carriers to be more open to allowing a variety of handsets and Internet services on their networks.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Invivia Flush

Posted by admin | Category: Table and Floor, Trend Watch & News

 Flush Touch Screen Working Prototype, Version 8 

Invivia on going flush touch screen projects really create some interest beside their award-winning Poetry Harp. In their blog , they also post several video and ideas on this homemade table integrated surface. If everything works well, it will be a cheaper alternative to Microsoft "Surface" product.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Motorola A810 new mobile linux

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Linux, Smartphone

 

Motorola A810 is powered by Linux OS, have a touch screen and will not have a keyboard. The linux smartphone has quite a clean design at the front. You can see the Send/Answer key at the left, Power/End key at the right and a 5-way nagivation joystick at the center. All user input can be done through its stylus, which is stored at the back of the A810. You can either use the virtual keyboard on the screen to input the text, or activate the handwriting recognition to write on the screen directly. At the back of the phone there is a 2 megapixel camera.

Via Source [FCC] Engadget

Popularity: 2% [?]

Immersion names new CEO, Clent Richardson

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

Immersion Corp , a supplier of feedback technology used in touch-screen devices, said on Thursday that Clent Richardson would replace Victor Viegas as chief executive on April 28.

Immersion said Viegas, who recently announced he was looking for a new CEO, would keep his role as chairman. It said Richardson, who was chief marketing officer at TiVo until March, would also be appointed to Immersion’s board.

Immersion’s haptic technology creates a vibration to give users of touch-screen device a sensation of having pressed a button. It is used in LG Electronics’ Venus and Voyager phones sold by Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications  and Vodafone Group Plc

Sony Corp also licenses the Immersion technology for use in its PlayStation 3 video game controller after settling a patent dispute with the company last year.

Richardson has also worked in marketing-related roles at Apple Inc maker of the touch-screen media-playing iPhone, and at Nortel Networks NETAS.IS.

Popularity: 2% [?]

LG Secret Series KF750

Posted by admin | Category: Mobile Phone

Following the popular LG Chocolate and LG Shine cell phones, LG today introduced the LG Secret series. The LG KF750 for Europe is the first one to go.

LG launched the third LG Black Label Series handset, the LG Secret KF750 touchscreen slider phone, in London today. Following the popular LG Chocolate and LG shine, also the third model from the LG Black Label Series focuses on a stylish design.
LG Secret is supposed to always look new thanks to the materials incorporated into the phone. Carbon fiber should add to the handset’s durability, and tempered glass shields the front LCD. Further adding to its design concept, Neon Touch Navigation buttons respond to commands with illustrious effects in lavish blue.
Sporting a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus (in an ultra-slim profile at 11.8mm), the LG Secret KF750 can take pictures with sensitivity up to ISO800 and shoot QVGA videos at 120 fps. Included camera features are Morphing (facial editing) and SmartLight, that automatically adjusts a picture’s light settings. Users can also take advantage of the Movie Maker Software in the handset to create their own music videos.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Japanese Patent Issued for Neonode ,Zforce

Posted by admin | Category: Trend Watch & News

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Neonode (Nasdaq: NEON), the Swedish mobile communication company that develops touch screen technologies and designs mobile handsets, today announced that the Japanese Patent and Trademark Office has approved the issuance of a patent, No 4046689, for its optical touch screen technology, zForce(TM).

"Several of the world’s leading consumer electronics manufacturers are based inJapan. Not only are they often first to market with innovative mobile products but Japanese consumers spend the highest amount per capita on consumer electronics of any nation in the world," said Mikael Hagman, President & CEO. "We expect to fully capitalize on the opportunity to license zForce in this market."

zForce was initially patented in 2002. Currently Neonode has a range of patents and patents pending globally, all centered on the finger-based input touch screen technology.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

TDS Nomad 800L Review

Posted by admin | Category: Tablet PC & UMPC

TDS Nomad can handle just about any environment, making it ideal for wide ranges of field work.

The moment you pick up TDS’s latest Nomad handheld computer you know it will happily go where normal PDAs fear to tread. Designed for work in the field where harsh environments are par for the course, the new Nomad has been tested to US military standard MIL-STD-810F.

This means it can handle just about anything you can throw at it - or throw it at for that matter. An ingress protection rating of IP67 also means it’s classed as dust tight and fully protected against the effects of immersion in water from 15cm to 1m deep for up to half an hour.

The main case is constructed from extremely solid plastic and the compact lithium-ion battery pack fits neatly in the back behind a removable sealed cover. Heavy duty rubber caps are fitted at each end and removing the top one reveals CF and SD card slots underneath that are used to augment the unit’s standard memory. The lower end cap, or ‘boot’, has both USB host and client ports, and this can also be replaced with one that has a standard serial port.

The Nomad handled all our tests with aplomb, with it working fine after a 30-minute dunking in a bucket of freezing, scummy garden water. We washed it off under a hot tap and left it to dry on top of a radiator for an hour, after which it went into a domestic freezer for a couple of hours. At no time did the Nomad stop working and repeated drops onto concrete from five feet merely left a few scuff marks on the rubber caps.

There is a price to pay for this ruggedness as the Nomad weighs nearly 600g, making it one of the heaviest computers of its type. Nevertheless, it fits comfortably in the palm and we found the touchscreen and accompanying stylus easy to use. The backlit colour TFT screen has been uprated from previous models to a 640 x 480 resolution and is bright enough to see in full sunlight.

[pcpro]

Popularity: 1% [?]

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