Wired has demoed an application for a Tablet that is running on Adobe AIR and yes it is demoed running on a Tablet. Publishers are certainly hoping this kind of effort is the future and that they will figure out a way to entice us all to pay for these things. The jury is still out on that.

I went back and looked at my records from about 12 years ago. At that time I subscribed to 14 different publications on an annual basis that were delivered by regular mail. I also bought two daily newspapers each morning and the Sunday New York Times each week at a cost then of $4.50. All told I was spending about $700 a year on all of this. That eventually stopped and those costs were simply transferred to paying for Internet access.

Several points about this.

First, you can tell how much the iPad has invaded the thinking of so many as quite a few articles about Wired’s app mentioned it as an iPad app. It was being demoed on another device. We all know Apple’s stance on Adobe’s Flash platform, and from the sound of things, Adobe might be positioning AIR as an alternative to fighting that battle, but there’s no guarantee that Apple is going to let AIR on its platform either. We’ll have to wait and see on that.

Second, Wired’s app proves that great design is going to be a key element for acceptance, in addition to content, but the technology for delivery is going to also be an important factor. Face it, publishers are going to want their content on any device they can get it on. An Adobe AIR like solution would certainly make that easier but a battle over who controls what is not going to move things along for anybody.

Third, in the longer view, Wired’s demonstration shows that there could be a resurgence in the kind of content creation and delivery that led every high school activity group to sell magazine subscriptions as a fundraiser for a good portion of the last century. The question is will we be willing to pay for it and value it in the ways we paid for content in an earlier era. Yesterday also saw a story about how their is some internal struggling going on at the New York Times over pricing of its future digital product. The circulation folks apparently want to see a monthly cost of $20 to $30, equivalent to what you pay for the paper to be dropped on your doorstep. The digital folks see a much different model of around $10 a month.

I don’t think anyone has the answers yet. The next few years will see all sorts of attempts and experiments to try and make this work on a number of levels, and somewhere in the future a model will probably evolve. But given the pace that things shift technologically these days, it is most likely going to always be a moving target. That is going to require a flexibility that will need to be learned as well for those hoping Tablets will be any sort of salvation.

Source

What if you could “touch” and poke your Facebook friends? In the future, this may be possible.

Star Trek’s Holodeck has just became a little closer to reality with news researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed a technique that allows 3D holograms to be “touched”. By blending a holographic display, a couple of Nintendo Wiimotes and an ultrasound phenomenon called acoustic radiation pressure, the researchers were able to create the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display. A system that can give the feeling of holographic raindrops hitting an outstretched hand or a virtual creature running across a palm.

The Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display consists of three elements.

* Seeing: The Provision holographic display, which produces floating images from an LCD screen using a concave mirror. These projected images appear to float around 30 cm away from the display surface.
* Tracking: The hand-tracking technology, which makes use of the infrared camera found in the Nintendo Wiimote and a retroreflective marker placed on the tip of the user’s middle finger. Although camera-based and marker-less hand-tracking technologies are easy to come by these days, the researchers chose a Wiimote-based system for simplicities sake. Infrared LEDs illuminate the marker and two Wiimotes sense the 3D position of the finger, thereby allowing the user to handle to floating virtual image with their hands.
* Feeling: Finally the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display provides tactile sensation onto the user’s hand. This is accomplished using acoustic radiation pressure, which allows force to be generated at the focal point of the ultrasound emitted from the tactile display. When the tactile display radiates the ultrasound the users can feel tactile sensation on their bare hands in free space with no direct contact. The current version prototype consists of 324 ultrasound transducers with individually controlled phase delays and amplitudes to allow one focal point to be generated and moved three-dimensionally.

The prototype in the video below shows a user feeling a raindrop hit their palm and feeling a small virtual creature running across their palm. Since the system doesn’t require the use of a physical object within the workspace, the appearance of the holographic images isn’t diluted.

The researchers from the University of Tokyo believe the technology will find applications in video games, 3D Computer Aided Designs, amongst other uses.

Source: PhysOrg.

Sharp intros ‘world’s first optical sensor LCD pad’ netbook

Named Mebius, the PC has a 4in, 854 × 480 input device that – according to Sharp – is much more than a
“conventional trackpad”. Why? The pad’s ability to recognise drawings and text using the bundled stylus, and to perform the same finger-based functions – such as rotate and zoom – as other multi-touch trackpad PCs, including Apple’s latest MacBooks.

And it’s a sub-display too, Sharp added. The colour LCD can show different screens, from function-key icons to calendars, email and diary entries. It can also be utilised by the app running on the main screen, to create a Nintendo DS-style dual-display set-up.
Trackpad capabilities aside, the Mebius will feature Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, be fitted with 1GB DDR 2 memory – expandable up to 2GB – and feature a 160GB hard drive.

The Sharp machine will come with a 10.1in, 1024 x 600 LCD and Intel’s 945GSE Express graphics chipset.

Other notable goodies include an integrated 1.3Mp webcam, Bluetooth 2.1 and wireless web over 802.11b/g. A multi-format card reader’s also built into the Mebius.
Although the machine’s claimed three-hour battery life may put off some potential buyers, its 260 x 190 x 23mm dimensions are sure to appeal to portable PC lovers. It comes with a choice of Windows XP or Vista Home Basic.

Sharp’s Mebius will be available in black or white body colours and is set to go on sale in Japan first – although the firm hasn’t said when – for ¥80,000 (£558/$814/€628). A UK launch date or price hasn’t been mentioned.
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Following up on Apple Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook’s comments during yesterday’s Q1 conference call, and the supposition that he was hinting that Apple may just take legal action against the Palm Pre for violating Apple’s intellectual property (i.e. patents), PC Mag quotes a reaction from Palm:

A spokeswoman at Palm said Thursday that the company has not been contacted by Apple’s legal team, to her knowledge. “Palm has a long history of innovation, obviously reflected in our own products and our own robust apps portfolio,” she said. “We have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space. If we’re faced with legal action, we’re confident that we have the tools to defend ourselves.”

When asked whether gestures like “pinching” were universal, or belonged to Apple, the Palm spokeswoman said that “our position is that multitouch has been around a long, long, long time before Apple introduced it.”

Source:

N-trig Sets New Industry Standard for Full Multi-Touch Capabilities on Large Format DisplaysVideo Demonstrating Full Multi-Touch Now Available for Viewing on YouTubeN-trig, the provider of DuoSense™ technology combining pen and zero-pressure touch for mobile and fixed computers into a single device, announced today that its DuoSense™ technology now has full multi-touch capabilities designed for large format displays. N-trig is introducing its latest technology breakthrough at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) Display Week 2008 – Booth #955, which is taking place May 18-23 at the Los Angeles Convention

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has launched its TouchSmart tx2-1003AU touch screen notebook in Taiwan.

The notebook features an AMD Turion X2 RM-74 processor, 250GB hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 3200 GPU with 64MB DDR2 sideport memory and 12.1-inch WXGA capacitive touch panel. Quanta Computer manufactures the notebook for HP.

HP pointed out that it plans to abandon single-touch technology and completely enter the multi-touch era in 2009.

HP’s TouchSmart tx2 series notebooks will target the consumer market with prices around NT$34,900 (US$1,054). The company believes the series will expand the scale of the touch screen notebook market.

Touch panel makers are also optimistic about touch panel demand in 2009 and expect monthly shipment volumes of around 100,000 units.

HP TouchSmart tx2 touchscreen notebook
Photo: Yen Ting Chen, DIGITIMES, December 2008

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N-trig, providers of DuoSense(TM) technology – combining pen and capacitive touch in a single device – announced their offering of an in-the-box suite of multi-touch solutions for Windows 7. N-trig’s multi-touch technology will be demonstrated on a Windows 7 platform at WinHEC, booth number 502.

N-trig’s pen and multi-touch technology offers all the benefits of Hands-on computing(TM) (HOC) as a natural and intuitive experience. N-trig’s efforts in the HOC space has resulted in reaching new heights of personal and professional computing, and continues to push the envelope of many standard features. These advances are built on N-trig’s current work with Windows operating systems.

“Working with Microsoft, we are building the infrastructure that is fueling HOC innovation in the PC marketplace,” said Amihai Ben David, CEO of N-trig. “With this foundation in place, ISVs can now create new applications to further enhance the usability and reduce the barriers between people and computers. Additionally, these software advancements give OEMs a high level of interactivity for a dynamic interface that will open up further avenues for development.”

“We’re excited to bring multi-touch to Windows 7 to create a unique experience for customers to easily search for information, navigate web pages and locate files all at their fingertips,” said Gary Schare, Director of Hardware Ecosystem Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “N-trig’s DuoSense technology is key to enabling multi-touch experiences by allowing customers a natural way to interact directly with computing devices through a touch of a finger.”

N-trig’s DuoSense technology offers cutting edge mobility and productivity, hand-in-hand with the convenience, usability and familiarity of the Microsoft world. Combined, these technologies will open a window to a world where multi-touch is the standard for computer interfaces.

About N-trig

Source

Fujitsu senior product director Paul Moore in an interview published today revealed plans by his company to introduce multi-touch computers while simultaneously downplaying the significance of the technology. Following in the footsteps of an early development in Dell’s Latitude XT, Fujitsu tells Wired it plans to release PCs in mid-2009 that accept multi-finger gestures but plans to limit these to fixed and convertible tablet PCs rather than extend them to all its notebooks. To Moore, the inherently fixed, lidded design of most notebooks makes touchscreens impractical and wastes space, while tablets make the screen the central feature.

“If you put a notebook in a slate mode, you are talking about a platform that is more gesture friendly than the clamshell,” he says. “You don’t see a lot of touchscreen notebooks because it is not intuitive to reach up and start touching the screen when there is a good keypad.”

Source 

LAS
VEGAS, January 7, 2008 – Bordeaux, France-based JazzMutant, a pioneer
developer of multi-touch sensing technology, announced today at the
International CES that it is launching an OEM business unit in response
to a growing demand for its multi-touch solutions by electronic device
manufacturers and third-party system integrators.

In addition, the company is being renamed Stantum
Technologies http://www.stantum.com,
with JazzMutant remaining the brand name of its music product division,
which includes the award-winning Lemur multi-touch surface controller
for audio and media applications and Dexter laptop-sized surface
controller for digital audio workstations.

“Since we introduced Lemur, interest in our patented
technology has increased to the point that we are now working with
leading companies in various business areas, including aerospace,
consumer electronic and medical imagery, to mention just a few,” said
Guillaume Largillier, co-founder and CEO. “It was time for JazzMutant
to evolve into Stantum Technologies.”

The new OEM business unit will provide Stantum
customers with tailor-made, integrated and cost-effective multi-touch
solutions – by way of components or licenses – that precisely fit their
individual needs, according to Largillier.

“Our aim is to become the major stakeholder of
tomorrow’s man-machine interface industry, making the way people
interact with their working tools, computers or other electronic
devices more intuitive, playful and reliable. Providing our unique
tactile screen technology to companies on an OEM basis – as a one-stop
multi-touch solution – will also significantly strengthen our market
position.”

Stantum’s technology portfolio offers true multi-touch
interfaces that let users simultaneously move an unlimited number of
fingers, nails or utensils such as styli on a screen. Fitting any
form-factor, it enables integrators to design extremely innovative
multi-touch interfaces for their own products, thus simplifying the
development process and considerably shortening the product’s
time-to-market.

The latest in the JazzMutant line is the SMK-15.4 Multi-Touch Development Kit. This new product enables you to build the ultimate in multi-touch user-interfaces.

The development kit is based on Stantum’s five year experience in the design and production of multi-touch systems.

Included in the system is a multi-touch 15.4” WXGA 1280×800 display, embedding Stantum patented scanning and filtering technology, Pmatrix high resolution multi-touch sensor, and all the drivers you could need.

JazzMutant has announced that the Multi-Touch Sensing Technology available on an OEM basis.

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