Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Surface Wave Touch Technology might be next

This week I was lucky enough to have a "Surface Wave" Touch Monitor (named: IntelliTouch) cross my path. As the description ("Surface Wave") alludes to the Touch Screen itself registers coordinates by interacting with a sound wave that crosses the screen. Quite literally X and Y coordinates (cursor movements) are recorded by someone breaking this Sound Wave by placing their finger on the screen. Cool!

So with the future in mind and the past behind us I thought I’d take moment to put some of the available technologies into perspective. Hope you enjoy it. Oh, and if you know of any cool technologies that "might" be the next big thing make sure you let me know so I can get my hands on it for you.




If you're interested in this technology make sure you look at this comparision chart. What is uberly interesting is that while Surface Wave Technology is robust, and excellent with finger, it actually cannot function with a pen or pointing device! [But it's so nice to touch.] Sounds like a combination Touch/Active Digitzer receives yet another vote of confidence for my next UMPC?

15 comments:

Gabriel Gonzalez said...

Congratz! A lot of nice information, as always!
Thank you for the explanation about the touch screens, really helpful!

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Thank you Gabi!

I thought it was worth sharing! Glad you enjoyed it.

Chau amigo.

Anonymous said...

Hi There,

As always a great pleasure to watch you and the enthusiasm you generate. Excellent peek into what is coming from the future.

Cheers,

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

hi there anonymous,

Cheers mate - I'll keep doing it as long as omsone is watching. LOL.

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Greetings Hugo:

Excellent Video blog about touch screen.
As for the UMPC Mainboard you showed on the video, do you know of any company in USA or in Asia that manufactures UMPC Mainboards.
I would be interested in this information.
Regards Robert from Montreal, Canada

Steven said...

Hey Hugo,
It looks like this technology would work great for a touch keyboard.
What tablet are you using in the video? Something new? Any word from HTC about getting you a Shift to review?

Steven

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Robert,

Try Amtek in Taiwan (they already manufacture UMPC). They are one of the few that actually manufacture. You also have bigger names like ASUS and TwinHead.

There are many more especially coming out of China. (But beware of their QC)

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Steve,

No sign of the HTC yet...working on it though.

Help me out guys, if you want it in my hands.

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Sorry Steven I missed half your question.

This technology would be great for a touch keyboard; especially when you consider it work whether is is scrathed or not. FYI the Tablet I was using is a UMPC and is the EO i7209.

Great comment!

Cubytes said...

Great stuff,

Can you do me a huge favor?

I need to find out more on the new dual screen laptop, called "2-VU" , by Estaria.

I feel so nostalgic, and angry at the same time; because I really wanted to be the person who was first to make the design for a dual-screen laptop.

It is kind of hilarious because it is in a way is a step back from small, tiny components and ultra portable; its almost like a digital monotonous briefcase, thick, bulky and very expensive.

You should watch the demos the one that caught my eye the most, is the eReader app, the idea that I came up with months ago, to see it work in action allowing people to read books on a computer as they naturally would on paper, caused mixed feelings.

but anyways check it out for me and you will be the first person I will contact when I have improvising a start-up, and even if you do not accept my offer I will still be grateful and I will give you ever product I design and manufacture for free and I plan on revolutionizing the entire computer industry!!!

thanks

here is the link:

http://www.estari.com/

enjoy!!!

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi Estari!!!

Wow, is that really you!?!?!

That rocks. Are you seriously selling them. When can you get me one. Shoot me an email on ubertablet at tegatech dot com dot au and we'll chat more.

Great comment and thanks for thinling of me...I'm thinking of TOUCH all the time.

Nets said...

This is all great info. As always I enjoyed this article. My eventual plan, perhaps by the end of the month, is to get a Samsung Q1 or Q1P(did you notice a difference in performance that would warrant the extra cost?) and a 17 inch external touchscreen. When at home working on graphic arts, I plan to use the larger 17 inch display for drawing and such. But when I'm on the go, I have a portable device I can work my ideas out on.
Thanks very much for this great article Hugo!

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hi ChapmanBobby,

(nice to hear from you again)

One word of warning - the Q1 range does not offer very good pen features. If you are hoping to ink and draw alot the you may want to look at teh ASUS R2H as your UMPC of choice or even better the Fujitsu P1610. The problem with the Q1 is that as soon as you lean on the glass it triggers an action in the cursor. As an artist I can only imagine that you will lean a lot.

Watch this video to learn more about the differences in the UMPC. To me it sounds like you need this monitor for your art. Love your thoughts on this.

As far as the Q1P goes I have the Vista version and I must admit it is about the same performance as the original Q1 with XP on it. This would be becasue of all the extra stuff Vista is doing...I guess. I think for performance the Q1P with XP would be faster.

Nets said...

Thanks for the info! And yes, a monitor is ideal, but I plan on using either a touchscreen or active digitizer for my work at home. As an artist I generally manage to adapt to nearly anything. I can create artwork with a mouse, track point mouse(like on the Q1 official keyboard), and the standard laptop mouse box thingy (I forget what it's called).

I may be broke, but my friend CJ is not and when he was looking for a computer that could travel as much as he needs it to, I took into account his needs then recommended the Q1. At first glance he was in love. He had never heard of the Q1 and I've watched it since day one and tried to buy one. Anyway, now I'm off track. The point is that he's an artist as well and he could not part with his Q1 to save his life. So considering an casual user can pick up the Q1 and create amazing art on it, a more experienced computer user would do much better I think. But I'll keep you posted and I'll give you an artist's perspective on the usefulness of a UMPC. I've chosen the Q1 mostly because as an artist, my home is very well decorated and that high gloss black is going to look very sexy and sleek and match wonderfully with my other glossy black devices.

I'll stop hijacking your blog via your comments page now. I could write all day about the tablets and UMPCs... and if I'm not careful... I will.

Thanks again,
Bobby Chapman

Hugo Gaston Ortega said...

Hey Bobby!

No you do sound like me. My next tablet of choice is the Toshiba R400 - not for its function but for its look! Are we pathetic or what.

When looking at travel make sure you look at a Q1B or Q1P over the Origial Q1, the added benefits of longer battery life are worth it alone. I like the increase in screen brightness mostly.

Keep up the great work and email me some art from the Q1 for me to post.

Happy Easter and thank you for loving Tablet (almost) as much as I do. LOL