Reverse Touchscreen Allows More Precise Manipulation of Graphics
Hyper-convergence paradigm :: Comments (0)
18 December 2008 :: by J.E. Robertson
A new reverse touchscreen, a ’see-through’ prototype that allows users to contact objects on-screen from behind the screen, mitigating the problem of hand or fingers blocking out part of the graphics. This makes the screen a more precise navigational interface for users and makes it easier to use multiple fingers at once. The new device will allow for much more agile use of personal electronic devices and possibly for further miniaturization of advanced graphics-intensive tools.
As the reverse touchscreen allows users to see exactly where their finger is located on the touchpad, it permits near point-to-point manipulation of the screen, which can provide for serious advances in mass-efficiency, or size-reduction. Convergent advances in computing speeds, which are likely to emerge from paradigm-shifting nano-chemical computing innovations, mean that super-miniature devices could work with advanced graphic capabilities —the iPhone already has twice the resolution per-area as Mac computer monitors— in super-light ever-thinner frames.
A larger model LucidTouch device introduced the reverse touchscreen technology and demonstrated its potential as a precision-enhancing mode of graphic interface, but the new NanoTouch better illustrates the potential of the precision-enhancing technology to help create more efficient, agile, user-friendly slim-form electronic devices. According to the New Scientist:
When the user touches the interface on the back, an image of a finger appears behind the icons on the screen and moves around in sync with the user’s finger, almost as if the device were transparent. A small active spot marked on the finger’s end is used to interact with buttons onscreen.
To complete the illusion, the fingertip turns white as if pressed against a sheet of glass when the user presses on the touchpad (see video above).
User tests showed that targets just 1.8 millimetres across were easy to hit using NanoTouch. Targets on conventional touch-screen devices such as the iPhone are at least twice that size.
The technology has been tested in the production of devices with screens just one centimeter in diameter, and engineers said the technology seems to work comfortably on screens as small as 8 mm in diameter. That would allow for “speed reading” technologies that show just one word or one phrase at a time, and for more flexible graphics capabilities on wrist-watches and other “electronic jewelry”. It is also conceivable that the reverse touchscreen technology could allow for a crossover between electronic paper, Web 3.0 and ultra-thin mobile phones.
