New Synaptics Touch Hardware Knows How to Use the Force

[Marcus Yam]

A whole new sensory dimension for your laptop's input device.

New Synaptics Touch Hardware Knows How to Use the Force : Read more

 

[waxdart]

this has been done so long ago it makes me cry.
A company called FingerWorks had some great stuff. Then apple bought them and kept all the good stuff back from the PC. Hold back the industry for years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FingerWorks

 

[CaedenV]

1980's: battle of a chip platform which left us with x86
1990's: battle of stability which got us win2K and XP
2000's: battle of hardware which finally got us hardware that can be 'fast enough' for consumer use for more than 5 years
2010's: This is the battle of the interfaces. keys/mice? touch? touchpads? leapmotion? voice? gesture/kinect? mind-control/EEG? not to mention all the assistant interfaces such as light level sensors, orientation sensors, proximity sensors, wireless connectivity such as Widi and NFC, etc.
With all the new ways to interact with technology it is no wonder OS designers are so divided with aero/desktop, metro, OS-X, iOS, Android's many faces, gnome, KDE, Unity, wii's OS, Playstation's OS, the many Car OS interfaces, etc. So far each caters to a specific interaction style while giving limited support for other forms of interaction. Hopefully by the end of the decade we will get an OS interface that will properly make use of many interaction styles without handicaping the other forms of interaction severely.

 

[djscribbles]

[citation][nom]caedenv[/nom]2010's: This is the battle of the interfaces. keys/mice? touch? touchpads? leapmotion? voice? gesture/kinect? mind-control/EEG? not to mention all the assistant interfaces such as light level sensors, orientation sensors, proximity sensors, wireless connectivity such as Widi and NFC, etc.With all the new ways to interact with technology it is no wonder OS designers are so divided with aero/desktop, metro, OS-X, iOS, Android's many faces, gnome, KDE, Unity, wii's OS, Playstation's OS, the many Car OS interfaces, etc. So far each caters to a specific interaction style while giving limited support for other forms of interaction. Hopefully by the end of the decade we will get an OS interface that will properly make use of many interaction styles without handicaping the other forms of interaction severely.[/citation]


Rightly so, interface is one of the biggest bottlenecks in most software these days, hardware as well. 15 minutes on a rubber-ball mouse will remind anyone how far we've come already in the last 10-15 years for mechanical interfaces.

Sounds like a pretty awesome tech, hopefully it's as good as it sounds

 

[juanc]

If they had a better A/D we could use it as a scale!

 

[ravewulf]

Meanwhile Wacom graphics tablets have 1024 levels of pressure. My old (2008) convertible laptop/tablet had a Wacom touch/pen screen with 512 levels of pressure.

Also, I usually keep my right index finger on the touchpad and click with my left index finger (no need to move my finger down to the button).

 

[tanjo]

New gesture:
Slam (slap the pad and max out the force sensor):
Automatically restarts in the event of a system crash.

Disclaimer: Activating the Slam feature may void your warranty.

OT: Useless - it's easier to adjust your hand/finger speed than the pressure applied. Touchpads only need multiple finger support and that's enough. How about making it big like some other full length touchpad.

 

[orpheon]

@ravewulf

And that's why they're graphics tablets and not touchpads.