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Touch-based Handhelds Turned Inside Out
holy_calamity writes "Mitsubishi and Microsoft have made a prototype PSP-like handheld operated using a touch interface on the back — the idea is to give a firmer hold, prevent obscuring the screen and allow greater accuracy than the iPhone and others. The users fingers are shown as shadows on the screen so they can see what they're doing, making the device look transparent. As a video shows, it's far from market ready, but the design principle seems sound."
Only con I can think of is being able to instantly touch a certain point. It'd seem like with the "touching" on the back that you'd need to touch somewhere first to get your orientation, then touch where you want to go.
Beyond that, I think this would be very practical.
While this looks like a great idea and all, I can't help but wonder how this will translate into smaller mobile devices. Something thie size of the iPhone (just to pick a random example ;) doesn't really have space for two hands. If you pick up your own mobile phone and drag your fingers around the back of it, you'll find it a bit more cumbersome than holding your phone in the palm of your hand and touching the front of the device.
That said, this could be an important development for tablet PC's. From my perspective, it seems tablets suffer from a lack of keyboard input. Sure you can plug in a keyboard, but that kinda defeats the purpose. This looks like it could be the solution to that problem.
Go these guys!
this post is now diamonds!
On that note, how do you hold it when you are actively using it? Telekineticly hover it between your hands so that they aren't touching? Or more realistically, very carefully balance it on your thumbs? I can't come up with a way to hold the thing as demonstrated in the video without a stand or something - which doesn't make it very portable.
At some point if this is intended to be used with mobile devices, one of the hands is going to have to become dedicated to holding the thing while the other does the gestures.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
It corrently works by having a camera sitting behind it and viewing the fingers as they move. If they build the camera into the device it would have to have a very wide angle and be able to distinguish between the fingers and the background.
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) It'd be interesting to see how many humans would survive to serve us.
Actually if you watch the video the demonstrator explains that the camera method is interim, claiming technological limitations. I think this technology would catch on pretty quickly considering we are pretty used to using our hands (..) to manipulate our environment. Watching it makes one think about how inefficient tactile, one-sided input is while your hands essentially fumble around at the back of the device.
I don't know about the Apple patent but I'd be happy to see a technology like this make it into handheld devices where screen space is limited and dragging hands or fingers constantly over your workspace is less then optimal.
Quack, quack.
0 to godwin's law in .5 sec. I do so wish that was a record but sadly, no.
So basically let's bash Toshiba and Microsoft from trying to make an actual implementation of some obvious vagueness Apple patented.
The basic idea is so obvious, even I came up with it few times when holding a touchscreen portable ("hmmm if the touch was on the back, I could hold it better").
They should come up with some stronger word than "bias" to describe the typical anti-MS slashdot post. I bet my money that you wouldn't spin it like this if Toshiba worked on this alone. Pathetic.
Actually, there is a big difference between the two. The Apple device simply implements the touch surface on the back of the computer. The Microsoft device does it on both sides AND, most importantly, has the ability to track the location of the fingers on the back and display them on the front, so the user get's good feedback as to where his fingers are actually in relation to the device.
The Apple device doesn't do anything like that.
Bill
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Gee I thought the idea was to moderate the post not the author of the post.
-- QED