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Smartphone-Style Touch Sensing On an 82-Inch Screen
An anonymous reader writes "Those giant touch screens used by CNN anchors look slick, but have to be several feet thick to make room for the cameras that track the touches. Perceptive Pixel, which makes the screens, has now figured out a way to use capacitive touch (like on an iPhone or tablet screen) at a larger scale, and says giant touch panels with 82-inch screens but just six inches deep will appeal to many businesses."
I'm sure they'll be in huge demand. At least, they'll be in demand till Apple hears about the 'iPhone-Style' touch and sues them out of existence!
More tech that some teachers will think they need in the classroom now that it's mass producable. Mind you, they use the current smartboard as a screen only or just to let the kids amuse themselves after the lesson has concluded, and the document camera serves only as a replacement for the transparency and overhead projector. Let's take an already overpriced, underused setup at ~$300/2000hr bulb and instead install a setup that's probably many times that, so little Skyler can virtual-fingerpaint at the front of the class instead of using chalk on a board or dry-erase markers.
Some teacher is writing a grant proposal right now, mark my words...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
During the nuclear crisis in Japan, watching NHK coverage was a treat. I had expected the Japanese to be well ahead of the U.S. in fancy computer graphics during news broadcasts. Instead, they had a hand-made 3D model of the nuclear plant, giant posters for various charts, and the weather reports used cardboard cutouts drawings of clouds, sun, rain, etc. which the weather lady stuck to a cloth map with velcro. Very quaint, and for the most part just as effective as the CGI stuff.