Freescale's new industrial touchscreen tech even works in the rain

Freescale is announcing a new industrial touch sensing technology that'll even sense your swipes and prods through a film of water. Xtrinsic 3.0 is designed to be used in industrial, medical and in-car systems, with pre-built user interfaces ready to be added to any device its jammed inside. In addition to being able to work through water, it can withstand noise, detect electrical interference and reduce false touches. It's being demonstrated at the company's technology forum in India from today, presumably ready to be licensed by passing equipment manufacturers in short order.

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Samsung calls Apple patents into question with LaunchTile and DiamondTouch table

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Samsung started off its case today by going straight at the heart of Apple's utility patents, showing off two software systems with similar functionality that pre-date iOS altogether. Adam Bogue, president of Circle 12, showed off images and video of a projection-based touchscreen surface called the DiamondTouch Table. Developed in 2001 at the Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratory (MERL), the DiamondTouch featured two particularly-relevant pieces of software: Fractal Zoom, an application that allowed users to manipulate images using multiple fingers, and Tablecloth.
The latter allows users to pull an image down in a window, revealing a duplicate image right above it; letting go causes the image to snap back to its original position, providing a visual effect that appeared quite similar to Apple's bounce-back effect. The DiamondTouch was easily accessible in the MERL lobby for anyone to access, leaving open the possibility that anyone in Cupertino could have seen the device — in fact, Bogue revealed that he'd even given a demonstration to Apple itself in 2003.

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Leap Motion's new gesture control system to be used to auto-translate sign language.

Developers eager to be among the first to create applications for Leap Motion's new gesture control system think it could be used to auto-translate sign language.
That was among the details the company released this morning about the initial round of requests from developers to design tools that work with the Leap -- technology that lets users control what's on their computers with hundredth of a millimeter accuracy with nothing more than their fingers or their hands.

The San Francisco company said that in the two months since pulling back the wraps on the Leap, more than 26,000 people asked for software developer kits, including 15,000 in the first week alone. Those developers come from 143 countries, and include 1,500 from university researchers or students.
When Leap Motion first unveiled its technology, it said that it saw the Leap as being ideal for upending industries like gaming, surgery, architecture, engineering, design, and more. But among the most interesting potential applications suggested by the developers asking for SDKs were ideas for using the technology to automatically translate sign language, the company said.

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Tesco trials virtual grocery store at U.K. airport

 U.K. supermarket chain Tesco has begun testing out a new kind of grocery shopping -- going all-virtual in Gatwick airport.
The BBC reports that Tesco has been pondering a familiar problem -- you go on holiday, kids in tow, but the practicalities of the return home are still on your mind. Will there be food in the house when you get back, and if not, can you face a trip to the supermarket?
In response, Tesco has decided to install a "virtual grocery store" in the departure lounge of London's Gatwick airport.
The virtual store has four interactive screens, which users can swipe between by hand, each displaying approximately 80 products. If travelers want to buy an item, they will need to download a dedicated mobile app and then scan each product's bar code with their smartphone.
Once the virtual shopping trip has been completed, holidaymakers can choose to have their purchases delivered on the day they arrive back in the country.

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PDX Interactive Technologies HIVE T42 touchscreen table available now

PDX Interactive Technologies just launched a new high end touchscreen table at a very affordable $4990. With a 42" LED 1080P Multitouch Display and a Quad Core i5 built-in computer, this stylish table looks like one of the best deals around. The closest competitor being the Samsung SUR40 at $8000.
PDX Confirmed that it's fully compatible with the new Windows 8 touchscreen interface and a video review is coming soon.

More at www.pdxhive.com

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Disney Research Revel: Programming the Sense of Touch

REVEL is a new wearable tactile technology that modifies the user’s tactile perception of the physical world. Current tactile technologies enhance objects and devices with various actuators to create rich tactile sensations, limiting the experience to the interaction with instrumented devices. In contrast, REVEL can add artificial tactile sensations to almost any surface or object, with very little if any instrumentation of the environment. As a result, REVEL can provide dynamic tactile sensations on touch screens as well as everyday objects and surfaces in the environment, such as furniture, walls, wooden and plastic objects, and even human skin.

REVEL is based on Reverse Electrovibration. It injects a weak electrical signal into anywhere on the user's body, creating an oscillating electrical field around the user’s skin. When sliding his or her fingers on a surface of the object, the user perceives highly distinctive tactile textures that augment the physical object. Varying the properties of the signal, such as the shape, amplitude and frequency, can provide a wide range of tactile sensations.

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Microsoft: Don't call it Metro. Call it 'Windows 8'

After a seeming naming dispute with a European partner (cough...Metro Group... cough), Microsoft has decided to switch rather than fight over the name of its Metro design language.

The new substitute terminology upon which the Softies have decided is -- drum roll -- "Windows 8," according to my sources.

Here's the official guidance, my sources say: Anything currently/formerly known as a "Metro-Style application" (with or without a hyphen) will now be known officially as a "Windows 8 application." References to the "Metro user interface" will now be replaced by "Windows 8 user interface." And instead of saying "Metro design," the Softies and those adhering to their official guidelines will be using the words "Windows 8 design."

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