"See-Through" Touchscreen Solves Fat Finger Problem

Urchin sends along a New Scientist writeup on Microsoft Research's nanoTouch prototype, a way of operating a touch screen from the rear (video here). The prototype will be presented at the Computer and Human Interaction conference in Boston, Mass., in April 2009. Coming soon to a wristwatch or neck pendant near you. "Electronic devices have been shrinking for years, but you might be forgiven for thinking that one that's only a centimeter across would be just too difficult to operate. Microsoft Research's new nanoTouch device suggests otherwise. Touch-screens are difficult to control with any precision — the fingers get in the way of the tiny targets you're trying to hit. But putting the touch interface on the rear of the screen instead gives users more precision because they can still see the whole screen as they interact with it. Microsoft Research has produced a prototype device called nanoTouch with a rear-mounted touch interface. User tests show it lets users accurately and reliably hit targets just 2 millimeters across on a screen under a centimeter across."

Comments

Dupe

[Thelasko]

This is a dupe from two weeks ago.

Apple has the patent

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.slashgear.com/apple-patent-shifts-controls-to-rear-of-ipod-105191/

Re:I've never heard of this before.

[ctscan]

It was Microsoft that time too http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/11/2219242

Re:I've never heard of this before.

[D Ninja]

That image compositing software is extremely awesome. If you'd like to learn more about it, check out this article.