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New Computer Interfaces Challenge Touch Screens


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gestural interface illustration

Credit: Media Circus 2

Researchers at several recent conferences have shown how new interfaces could change the future of human-computer interaction. For example, at this year's ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the University of British Columbia's Vincent Levesque demonstrated a way to change the feeling of a touchscreen, sometimes making it slippery and other times making it sticky. "This is actually the same technology used in many cell phones or other devices, but it runs at a higher frequency so you don't feel the vibration itself," Levesque says.

Also at the CHI conference, Texas A&M University researchers presented a gesture-controlled systems called ZeroTouch, which is equipped with 256 infrared sensors that create a spider web of light. When the web is broken, the computer interprets the size and depth of the break and displays it as a brushstroke. When ZeroTouch is placed over a computer screen it becomes a touchscreen.

Meanwhile, Hasso Plattner Institute researchers have developed imaginary interfaces that enable users to interact with mobile devices when they are not in front of them. And at Ceatec 2010, TDK presented electroluminescent displays, which are intended for use as the main display panel in mobile phones and other devices.

From Computerworld
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Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA


 

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