Multi-touch is undoubtedly the new technology fad. The iPhone has it, Microsoft Surface has it, reactable has it, and before you know it your kitchen counters will all be one big multi-touch screen. The next move for multi-touch devices, however, is seemingly obvious…a replacement for the Tablet PC’s.
Microsoft’s Research facility in Cambridge has already begun to add multi-touch capabilities to notebook computers. Using infrared sensors attached behind the screen it is able to do everything that you would expect an early prototype to do. It can flip through items, rotate them, and most importantly it can resize images by dragging the corners.
Below you’ll find a short demo (full version here) that is actually pretty interesting because they explain how it works, and I enjoyed seeing that aspect since I’m the type of person who takes devices apart to better understand them.
As you can see the infrared censors add more than just multi-touch capabilities, they also serve as an enormous receiver for signals sent from an infrared remote. You wouldn’t need an external receiver to use a remote control anymore, and this could serve as another method of syncing wireless devices. There is a downside to this feature though, and it’s that other people can try to take control of your computer using their own infrared devices.
Source: I Started Something
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Tags: Hardware, Software, Windows, Apple, Downloads, Microsoft, Prototype, Screenshots
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