The same guys who brought you the bubble input have created a crazy scratch UI that allows you to scratch and tap almost any surface. By sensing the sound and the finding the peaks and valleys in the waveform the system can tell if you’re scratching a shape or tapping on the surface.

The UI can be used with any material – it just needs a sensitive microphone – and could be used to follow a pen on a whiteboard surface or allow you to control programs from your desk. Imagine, if you will, a touchpad on a laptop that consists of the entire wrist rest – heck, even the side panels. You just tap it and it senses what you’re doing.

This comes from some boys over at Carnegie Mellon, my alma mater, which makes it ten times cooler. It’s nice to know they’re still geeking out over there. Go Tartans!

via Giz

The design looks a little goofy, but the intent is to increase the amount of dead space around each key, thereby reducing the likelihood of pressing an adjacent key by mistake. Without having used the thing at all, it seems like a good idea. But then again, if the Apple braintrust didn’t think of it for the iPhone, it must not be a good user interface, right?

The neat thing is that David Baker originally developed this layout for a physical keyboard for Palm Pilots!

According to MIT’s Technology Review:

Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed buttons that pop out from a touch-screen surface. The design retains the dynamic display capabilities of a normal touch screen but can also produce tactile buttons for certain functions.

Graduate student Chris Harrison and computer-science professor Scott Hudson have built a handful of proof-of-concept displays with the morphing buttons. The screens are covered in semitransparent latex, which sits on top of an acrylic plate with shaped holes and an air chamber connected to a pump. When the pump is off, the screen is flat; when it’s switched on, the latex forms concave or convex features around the cutouts, depending on negative or positive pressure.

To illuminate the screens and give them multitouch capabilities, the researchers use projectors, infrared light, and cameras positioned below the surface. The projectors cast images onto the screens while the cameras sense infrared light scattered by fingers at the surface.

Apparently similar solutions have been proposed in the past but none have been as full-featured and relatively affordable as Carnegie Mellon’s version. For instance, this version can register the amount of force applied to a button press, which can be used in UI design. Music playing software could use a harder button press to scroll through a list of songs faster while using a lighter press to scroll more slowly.

The current system is still pretty large thanks to the air pump, so early production versions will most likely end up in car dashboards. The team is exploring ways to shrink everything and believes that it’d ultimately be able to fit inside a cellphone.

Check out this video of the screen in action. Very cool.

Touch Screens with Pop-up Buttons [Technology Review via Engadget]

Android is now available—yeah, it’s true—but you’re hard-pressed to find any review that raves about its user interface. (Ryan Block, of Engadget fame, called it “very raw” last week on Tekzilla, which is right on the money, I think.) But, in an alternate world, maybe where dogs walk people, these alternative user interfaces were developed.

The Astonishing Tribe, the same group that developed Android’s user interface, just published a handful of what-could-have-beens, mockups and in-progress alternative Android user interfaces. Some look better than others—Asia Cute looks tremendous, as does Open GLES—but all of them are worth checking out.

Given that Android is free as in freedom, perhaps some developer will create a user interface that doesn’t look like it was designed by committee. One can hope, at least.

via Gizmodo

Really good news for serious World of Warcraft players. It looks like Blizzard, starting with Wrath of the Lich King will store all your customized UI odds and ends—dungeon maps, coordinates, threat meters, etc.—server-side. That means if you’re away from your main WoW machine, you’ll still have the same interface you’re used to, and not the bare-bones default one the game ships with.

That’s what someone who’s playing the beta right now claims, at least. It could well be that by the time the game goes gold, Blizzard may change its mind. That wouldn’t make any sense, though, as this is a feature that’s been requested for quite some time now.

Cool. Looks like the HTC Touch Diamond (and presumably the HTC Touch Diamond Pro) can actually do multi-touch. Not only multi-touch on the screen itself, but all the way down around the navi-wheel and buttons. [Update – Apparently it’s just around the navigation buttons that the multi-touch works.] The feature is revealed when using HTC’s Nav Debug Tool but so far doesn’t have any practical use beyond simple testing. However, HTC updates its ROMs on a fairly regular basis so maybe we’ll someday see this feature come to light for normal people like you and me.

From MobileTopSoft:

Here is how it works:
* The area around the navi-wheel is actually a capacitive touch-area with multi-touch
* it may allow using finger pinching gesture and finger spreading gesture (zooming for example) and also implement 2 finger moving for panning gesture for example too.
* Not all capacitive touch-areas are multi-touch at the same time!
* You can try it for yourself at XDA-Developers NavDbgTool.exe, you must have registered account there in order to download

[via Gizmodo]

Starting in June, we’ll see a bunch of ASUS laptops shipping with the Express Gate instant-on UI. The interface was created by DeviceVM and is called Splashtop, although OEMs can apparently change the name to suit their needs, hence ASUS calling it Express Gate. It’s branded as “a light-weight operating system that allows consumers to use their computers seconds after hitting the power button.”

We’ll see more in early June as Express Gate gets shown off at Computex in Taiwan, but the above video should give you a pretty good idea of how everything works.

Here’s some more video of the Touch Diamond’s interface. The various devices I’ve seen have at times been a little laggy with the photos and the tilt sensor — stuff like that. It may have to do with the fact that they’re connected to the Wi-Fi network here along with 150 other people. Hopefully the production versions will be a bit snappier. The device demo’d in the main presentation hummed along pretty well except for hanging up on a particular article of a graphics-intensive car web site.

Higher resolution video available here.

I can’t quite put my finger on it (pun intended) but this interface looks similar to something I’ve seen before. The “Smart Touch” UI by Gigabyte for its line of GSmart phones will be available in Europe “after May,” so there’s no telling if we’ll see something like this here in the US. Actually, we’ll see a lot of stuff like this if we haven’t already, as most major mobile device manufacturers and software developers work to replicate the UI of a wildly popular phone that’s been on the market for a while.

via the::unwired

Esteban and his partner Javier sent us this demo of a $20 multi-touch screen they built as a thesis project. It’s quite cool. This one is a few inches across and can sense multiple inputs and even pressure. He writes:

Javier Jorge and me started with this project one year ago for our thesis. We are Computer Engineer students at the “Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fisicas y Naturales” of Cordoba University, in Argentina. Our initial idea was to develop a multi touch technology similar to the one Jeff Han did, but trying to make it fit in a LCD screen without increasing size too much.

The prototype seen in the video is a proof of concept of the technology we made. It has an active area (where the multi touch is sensed) of 7cmx7cm.

It basically uses IR light emitted from the back to “see” the objects that touches the screen. We can detect any IR-reflective object, specially, fingertips. The functionality is similar to Microsoft’s ThinSight, but we don’t use the IR detector grid. We are keeping the sensing technology confidentially for the moment.

The technology can be integrated to an LCD screen. We didn’t have the time to do it (but we tested it). Because IR light can go through the LCD, we can place our sensing technology behind it.

The prototype dimensions does not reflect the size that this technology requires, the sensing technology could be 3mm thin and it requires another space to place some processing hardware.

The prototype cost us around 60pesos (~US$20). We calculate that a 20” should not cost more than US$100 (without including the LCD screen).

We are looking for some company that can invest in this technology, we want to finish it and make a product. I think that in 1.5 a final prototype could be ready and in 2 years a product.

Samsung has filed a patent for a phone that is operated with only your hands, but not on the phone. The idea is that you move you hand around and form gestures in the air to control the phone. The patent states that the hand movements would be captured in the phones camera and then translated into instructions for the phone.

As interesting as this technology is, it is only a patent, so who knows when, if ever, we we’ll see products using this on the market.

via GigaOM

Forum Post

Meizu MiniOne UI Updated [Giz]

The Register’s Bill Ray has an article about what we might expect from Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Danger, maker of the popular Sidekick operating system.

It seems that, according to Ray, Microsoft’s looking to shift away from Windows Mobile as a user interface towards Windows Mobile as a platform upon which developers can overlay their own shell-like user interfaces, a strategy evidenced by Microsoft’s interoperability announcement earlier today. He likens it to how Windows 3.1 gave way to a host of alternative interfaces. I clearly remember Packard Bell Navigator as one such shell. That oughta date me. Anyone else use Packard Bell Navigator?

Microsoft may leverage Danger’s expertise in the proxy browsing and messaging areas that work so well on the Sidekick. I used the original Sidekick and the Sidekick II for quite a while and I miss the seamless synchronization of my e-mails and contacts to T-Mobile’s site. We might see something like that out of Microsoft in the near future.

Why is Microsoft dancing with Danger? [The Register]

Big surprise here. The wonderful “multitouch” interface used by the iPhone, iPod touch, and new MacBook Air is; A) not Apple’s invention, B) famous because of Apple, and C) will begin appearing in more and more devices.

Says Walt Mossberg,

Apple didn’t invent the multitouch concept. Academic and commercial researchers, and small, obscure companies, have been working on it for years. Apple is adapting the concept, adding its own ideas and popularizing it — just as it did in the 1980s with the mouse and the graphical user interface, which had also been invented elsewhere.

Synaptics is scrambling to release a multitouch trackpad for non-Apple laptops, Microsoft has the whole Surface thing, and, if you recall, HTC built and released it’s own phone (called the Touch) before the iPhone was released.

The big question will be; can these devices work as well as Apple’s devices? I have the HTC Touch and I have the iPod touch. The iPod touch’s interface makes the HTC Touch seem silly and gimmicky. Granted, it was released almost a month before the iPhone so let’s not hold that against HTC. Manufacturers releasing devices from now on, though, have no such excuse. If they’re going to put multitouch into their devices, it’s gotta work and it’s gotta work well.

Multitouch Interface Is Starting to Spread Among New Devices [Wall Street Journal]

I don’t have access to a Voyager at the moment and I’m not sure if this was apart of the firmware upgrade that went out last month. Can any Voyager owners comment? K. Thx.

While this isn’t as sexy as the HTC Touch interface — dig the cube, man — this new piece of software from PointUi mimics some iPhone functionality while hiding the hard mess of WinMo6 under a pretty wrapper. As Michael points out, maybe if I had this on my Shadow I’d answer my phone more, but I doubt it. We’ll give it a whirl once the vodka passes out of my bloodstream. Until then, enjoy the video.

Product Page

Touchscreens and their relatives have been around for a long time. For more than a decade, the touchscreen’s little brother, the touchpad, has dominated the laptop pointer motion sector. To be honest, it wasn’t even necessary, as the precision and comfort provided by the pointer nubbin on so many Thinkpads is still amazing. Not to mention the fact that so much space is wasted on either side of the touchpad. From a design perspective, the touchpad was a disaster. And I don’t even want to think about the wear and tear on my poor finger pads from all the swiping back and forth – I’ve probably had to regrow my fingerprint 20 times since they changed from the nubbin. And don’t get me started on the iPod’s scroll wheel – we all know it was better when it actually spun.

So we’ve moved up from the touchpad to the touchscreen, now. Durability is the first thing. You’ve got sensitive electronics millimeters from your fingernails, styluses (styli?), pens, and Swiss Army knives. What are the chances of that complex fabric of resistors and pressure detectors is going to remain unscathed for long? This is a dangerous world we live in, and when the most complicated and essential part of your gadget is located right there on the outside, you’re just asking for trouble. Next problem: satisfaction! It just doesn’t feel right to touch something that doesn’t give any affection back. Face it, people like buttons, plus they have seniority. You know when you’ve clicked them, they don’t move around, and they’re always in the same place. Touchscreens have been at checkout counters for years and they still can’t get the buttons straight, but when you’ve got a physical numberic keypad, along with “yes/enter” and “no/cancel” buttons, there’s no way to get it wrong.

And let’s look at the evidence around us: touchscreens have been available for a long time, but how many do you own and actually use? I notice your keyboard is covered in little buttons. Your mouse has buttons, not to mention the fact that it’s a hundred times more sensitive and responsive than a touchscreen. There are buttons on your monitor, your TV controller, your gamepad, and you know that in the situation room under the White House, there’s a big red button - not a touchscreen with “launch/don’t launch” options on it. There are even buttons on your iPhone.

Lastly, let’s look at the future: do you see touchscreens anywhere in it? Yeah, if you believe Minority Report, which was probably funded by the Scientologist-dominated touchscreen lobby. But if you believe Neuromancer and Ghost in the Shell, we’re gonna move right past touchscreens to the real deal where you won’t have to worry about rubbing your fingertips off onto some dirty screen, because you’ll be surfing the net using your mind. Even before we reach that point, stuff like the Wii and Logitech MX Air have the right idea, taking natural movements and gestures and making them into either shorthand for actions or precision pointing machines. The touchscreen is a flash in the pan, people, and buttons aren’t going anywhere.

Unreasonable Stance is a column in which one CrunchGear writer tries to argue for the other, not usually accepted, side. Sometimes it’s satire, sometimes it’s trolling, sometimes it’s gibberish. Most importantly, however, it is an attempt to see a technical issue or product from another perspective, something we rarely do in our compartmentalized, partisan world.

Little is known about these spy shots of a new interface designed for Sony-Ericsson’s UIQ. What I see is a touch-based interface that is half iPhone, half HTC Juno. You would think a guy snapping photos during a corporate presentation would be willing to cough up a little more information!

Sneak peek at SonyEricsson’s new UIQ interface [Gearfuse]

Durrr… Hi. I’m a phone manufacturer/mobile OS programmer. Durrr… urm…. durr. Hold on. I just had to make pasgetti. So I sawed a man in the Apel stor who had a cool fone called the apelphone. it had a big screen… ICE CREAM!… and it was touch swansitive. You could move your finger on the screen like you were pushing boogers off of the screen and he had a boogie in his nose!

So I made this operating sys called Touch and it is from the future! It has booger movies and takes pictures and its better cause you can use your fanger or your pencil or your peeper! HA!

You are so stupid, apelfone! You don’t have pencil controls! The sad thing is we’ll prolly sell a MILIONGAZILION of these and I’ll be so happy :):):):(:). I can go see Air Bud!

S60 Touch Interface Launched [AllAboutSymbian]

The UI appears to be tiled and whatever it is you wish to see will be brought to the forefront whilst everything else stays in the background. I think it kicks much ass and definitely adds a unique UI to the market that looks very easy to use. Again, we shall see what happens and if this actually materializes. I, for one, cannot wait.

Patent [via Mad4Mobile]