More from Hewlett Packard: a TouchSmart Notebook!

The new HP TouchSmart tx2 Notebook is duo-touch, with a swivel display. You can use a stylus or your fingertips to interact with the screen. The price listed on the site is $1,149.99, but it s a bit more expensive if you order "the works".




According to the HP website, some models of the notebook come with a built-in fingerprint reader to assist with log-on or lock-up functions. It includes integrated Altec Lansing stereo speakers and supports multimedia entertainment applications. The screen is 12.1", with an HP BrightView LED display. It is capable of playing HD content.

Watch the video:
http://h30440.www3.hp.com/campaigns/tx2/demo/Model.html

Explore the features in the interactive presentation.
http://h30440.www3.hp.com/campaigns/tx2/demo/Model.html


Read the WSJ Market Watch article:


"The enhanced HP MediaSmart digital entertainment software suite on the tx2 allows users to more naturally select, organize and manipulate digital files such as photos, music, video and web content by simply touching the screen.

"Breezing through websites and enjoying photos or video at the tap, whisk or flick of a finger is an entirely new way to enjoy digital content on a notebook PC," said Ted Clark, senior vice president and general manager, Notebook Global Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP. "With the introduction of the TouchSmart tx2, HP is providing users an easier, more natural way to interact with their PCs, and furthering touch innovation." "

The notebook uses capacitive touch technology, and supports gestures such as "pinch, rotate, arc, flick, pres and drag, and single & double tap."

For more information, see Hugo Jobling's recent post on the TrustedReviews website.
The touch-screen in HP's products are from NextWindow. NextWindow now has drivers that will work with the upcoming Windows 7, which will allow for multi-touch applications.

FYI: Video clip of HP's TouchSmart single-touch interaction, from July 2008:


From Andy Vandervells' Trusted Reviews post, "Hands On with the HP TouchSmart"

OpenFrameworks & Interactive Multimedia: Funky Forest Installation for CineKid

The Funky Forest was created by Emily Gobeille and Theodore Watson for the 2007 CineKid festival in the Netherlands, using OpenFrameworks, an open-source application used for multimedia and multi-touch applications. Take a look at the video and pictures of the children interacting with this technology!

"It “is a wild and crazy ecosystem where you manage the resources to influence the environment around you. Streams of water flowing on the floor can be diverted to make the different parts of the forest grow. If a tree does not receive enough water it withers away but by pressing your body into the forest you create new trees based on your shape and character. As you explore and play you discover that your environment is inhabited by sonic life forms who depend on a thriving ecosystem to survive.”

The trees and creatures in the installation look really beautiful; just abstract enough to make it look like a strange magical forest, but the processes of our real ecosystems are still recognisable. A really wonderful project. And it sure looks like a lot of fun!" -Tanja, from the TakeBigBites blog

Every Surface a Computer: "Scratch" Capturing Finger Input on Surfaces using Sound. Video by Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson's Video - UIST '08

Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson, from the Human-Computer Interaction Group at Carnegie-Mellon University, presented their latest research at the UIST '08 conference. Take a look at the video below to see how gestures that result in sounds can can transformed on unpowered finger input surfaces, using a stethoscope sensors and filters:



Yes, every surface is a computer!
(Even your pants...)

For detailed information, read the paper presented at UIST '08 by Chris Harrison and Scott E. Hudson:
Scratch Input: Creating Large, Inexpensive, Unpowered, and Mobile Finger Input Surfaces

RELATED:

The Best Paper Award at UIST '08 was "Bringing Physics to the Surface", by Andrew Wilson, of Microsoft Research, and Ahahram Izadi, Otmar Hilliges, Armando Garcia-Mendoza, and David Kirk, of Microsoft Research, Cambridge.

Here is the abstract:

"This paper explores the intersection of emerging surface technologies, capable of sensing multiple contacts and of-ten shape information, and advanced games physics engines. We define a technique for modeling the data sensed from such surfaces as input within a physics simulation. This affords the user the ability to interact with digital objects in ways analogous to manipulation of real objects. Our technique is capable of modeling both multiple contact points and more sophisticated shape information, such as the entire hand or other physical objects, and of mapping this user input to contact forces due to friction and collisions within the physics simulation. This enables a variety of fine-grained and casual interactions, supporting finger-based, whole-hand, and tangible input. We demonstrate how our technique can be used to add real-world dynamics to interactive surfaces such as a vision-based tabletop, creating a fluid and natural experience. Our approach hides from application developers many of the complexities inherent in using physics engines, allowing the creation of applications without preprogrammed interaction behavior or gesture recognition."
Preparation for the Internet of Surfaces & Things?



(Cross-posted on the Technology-Supported Human World Interaction blog)