New EL Touchscreen Remote Control

raminf writes "Stumbled across the Kameleon -- a new remote control device from Univeral Electronics. The interface is a blank electro-luminescent touch-screen. The 'buttons' are animated graphics drawn to match any device you choose . You can update new device interfaces via a modem (specs aren't clear how exactly). You can also define 'macro' buttons to do multiple tasks with one button. Apparently it also has a built-in motion-sensor and turns itself on when you pick it up. You can't buy it directly in the U.S. yet. Here's a British web-site that carries it and has some specs and a picture. Here's the company press release. RadioShack has announced they'll be carrying it retail pretty soon."

Comments

Update via modem

[dfn5]

So when I go on a business trip I can dial back into my remote and reconfigure it? And I thought checking my email was cool.

Mo-dem?

[JessLeah]

You can update new device interfaces via a modem...

Mo-dem? What's a mo-dem?... I think I remember Mo-dems...those were those slow things with the blinkylights that we all had before we got residential DSL and cable...right? And you could type +++ATH0 and it e(6`|:fK6@(^*&#~~~NO CARRIER

Re:Mo-dem?

[Symbiosis]

I used to have mo-dem. But that that was when I had mo-money. Now I just have no-dem, and the repo man has mo-mo-dem den all-dem.

woo!

[cube00]

Looks like my winamp skin, all glowy... and stuff! Finally a remote matching my mp3 player!

Re:But can it withstand....Killer Couch.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The drop test, the fluid contamination tests? This thing looks way too fragile."

You forgot the "Eaten by the couch" test.
Very few remotes come out of that.

Philips Pronto

[cheinonen]

Why don't you just go with the new high end Philips Pronto they showed in Time's gift guide. It's only $1,700 and has built in 802.11b networking, what more do you need in a remote? I'm pretty sure you can almost buy one of those new TabletPC's and I'm sure turn it into a way to control your TV for that price. I can see spending $200 for a remote if you have a $5,000 setup, but you better have one really, really nice home theater to pay $1,700.

Re:Missing Feature

[LighthouseJ]

I think the term you are groping for is "tactile response".

And you have to think about...

[Flyskippy1]

Does it run on OS? In sure it'll be terrible when someone calls from the Living Room...

"Honey, the remote Blue Screened again..."

Re:Bah

[Malicious]

People used to get called lazy because they didn't want to leave the couch to change the channel...

What do you call a person who doesn't want to have to *look* at the remote?

Re:Sounds nice.

[Rolo Tomasi]

Still too expensive, you can get a used Palm III for that price. The Palm with the OmniRemote app is quite powerful. I used to program mine as an alarm clock. When it was time to wake up, the Palm would first set the volume of my amp to zero, start the CD player and then gradually increase the amp's volume over several minutes. You were bound to wake up at some point :). Really spooky to see the volume knob rotate all by itself ...

Of course, it was also ideal for pranks. I'd put the palm on top of the cupboard, so it was difficult to see, and then programmed it to switch TV channels at prime time ... lots o' fun.