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Display System That Knows Who You Are
lee1 writes "New Scientist
reports on an 'interactive computer display that keeps track of multiple users by differentiating between their touch'. The system consists of a touch-sensitive screen that can be operated by several users simultaneously. When a user touches the screen an electrical signal is sent through their body and picked up by a receiver located in their chair, telling a computer precisely where the screen was touched and by whom. Applications could include system access control, safer vehicle controls, and smarter videogames. The bottom line, in the words of one of the inventors: 'If the controls know who is operating them, they can behave appropriately.' The movie
even has funkier than average background music."
I don't think I want a screen that can scream to the rest of the office, "Oh, it's another dirty pervert looking at me again."
Gone are the days of the generic PEBCAC - now computers will know exactly who is there between them and chairs.
I can assure you, the best way to get rid of dragons is to have one of your own.
When a user touches the screen an electrical signal is sent through their body and picked up by a receiver located in their chair, telling a computer precisely where the screen was touched and by whom.
Of course the chair would also need to be able to read the RFID tag implanted in your butt to solve the Musical Chairs Problem.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Awesome. I would love a monitor that tracks who puts there fingers on my screen. So I know who's fingers to break when the muck my display up.
Do you suppose it's a threat to my pace--
*FZZZZT*
*THUMP*
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
I like it. Finally I'll know when my boyfriend is playing with my desktop again, because then the screen will scream for help. No more rescuing the system after an embarrassed admission that the screen suddenly turned blue, when he didn't do anything except play with the settings a little.
...instead of allowing anyone using the computer to see and hear their DRM content, they can charge everyone who sits at the same person for the privilege.
Oy vey.
Computer: Get your filthy *&^*( off of my screen!
User: That's not mine. It's his.
Computer: Is that supposed to make me feel better?
The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race. - Don Marquis (1878-1937)
And I can see the warning stickers now... "Do not use if you have a pacemaker or other heart condition." "Do not use during a lighting storm." "Please disscharge all static before you sit down and use the monitor." "Do not handle other electronic devices while using monitor, Damage or miss ID could occor." "Do not lick chair." "Do not use while wet." "Do not plug into a 220v outlet." (Yes we know it would be funy, but we can not be held responsible for any unwanted "Cooking")
It's from the same group that brought you this project.
The funky music in the video was composed and performed by Peter Wilder. I'm a big fan of his work. You can find out more about him here ...
Definitely we can see that multiple input works, but that has been shown within the last year or two already, so that is nothing new.
You would think that if the major new feature is this user detection, they would have used different colors for the different users, or found some other method to really show off that it doing one thing for one user (resizing/moving windows for instance), while doing something else for the other user (scrolling through a window, selecting options in a different window, etc.).
And what was with the staged beverage spill. For a technology demo that was pretty weird.
I did find it ironic that the entire demo was done in XP, but they used Apple's website as their demo material.
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