Nanowire polymer film turns any surface into multi-touch interface

[bryce]

Didn't I see this on Caprica the week before last...?

http://singularityhub.com/2010/03/2...ny-surface-into-a-multitouch-interface-video/

Nanowire Polymer Film Turns Any Surface into a Multitouch Interface



Displax's thin polymer film can be applied onto any nonconductive surface to create a touchscreen.

Portuguese engineers have taken us one step closer to fusing the digital and physical worlds. Displax, a fledgling tech company in Braga, has developed a device that can read the electrical disturbances in a thin transparent polymer film embedded with nanowires. Any pressure on the film (from a finger, or even from wind) can be detected and understood as a command. Apply the Displax Multitouch Technology (DMT) to any noncoductive surface and you’ve got an instant multitouch interface. According to their press kit, the DMT can interpret up to 16 fingers on a 50 inch screen. The film system can work on any surface from ~7 inches (18cm) to ~10 feet (3m). With drivers for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, the DMT should be able to work with most conventional computers. Which means that all those non-touch LCD screens out there could be easily updated to be touch capable. With projectors every glass window, every wooden bench, every plastic surface could be used as an I/O device.

The possibilities are awesome.

Displax put its technology on display in several case studies. We have video of a concept store and a museum for you to enjoy below. Behold the power of film. CONT

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcwqgOrEb0g[/yt]

 

[bryce]

Speaking of turning ANY surface into an interactive display...have we covered skinput here yet?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3XPUdW9Ryg&feature=player_embedded[/yt]

 

[USS KG5]

All these nifty ideas and still after all this time I'm using a mouse and typing on a qwerty keyboard!

OK - multitouch has taken off like crazy on phones, but for a genuine desktop work environment are we cursed forever to use keyboard, mouse and something that looks a lot like Windows?

Gulp...

 

[Deks]

All these nifty ideas and still after all this time I'm using a mouse and typing on a qwerty keyboard!

OK - multitouch has taken off like crazy on phones, but for a genuine desktop work environment are we cursed forever to use keyboard, mouse and something that looks a lot like Windows?

Gulp...

We have invented A LOT more technologies than this that are quite complex and advanced, and we are still on older way of doing things.

It's just how the (capitalist) world works.

New techs will be expensive regardless of how cheap they might be to produce and whatnot.
They aren't doing this for betterment of mankind (if they were, we'd have far superior tech today in virtually every field), they do this for the money, and why make the change when they can milk the old tech as much as possible?

 

[CuttingEdge100]

So it's basically like a big thin plastic like sheet you can hang on a wall, turn it on and it becomes a video screen, touch screen etc?

I've heard of ideas like this before

 

[Robert Maxwell]

That's pretty awesome. I would wallpaper my house with them!

 

[publiusr]

Structures with very large surface areas (orbiting space-based powersats, skyscrapers) could tell repair robots right where they were struck (hail, micrometeorites, etc) so as to expedite repairs. Combine this with the supersized touchscreens, and skyscrapers and full scale aircraft could be covered with such surfaces so as to aid aerodynamics research. Large verticle plates in tornado country could show how winds vary in height.

Wind buffets would leave marks on the screen-surface in lieu of smoke or the tiny tassles/streamers in wind-tunnel tests--and the swirl patterns left behind as shown on the screen in real time would themselves be very artistic.

The wind itself would thus be Gaia's paint brush upon canvas yet unmade.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

Robert Maxwell,

That's pretty awesome. I would wallpaper my house with them!

You're probably not the first person to think of that...


Publiusr,

Actually with aircraft they already do paint some wind-tunnel models with a type of paint that changes color when exposed to pressure.

 

[Jetfire]

Let me know when a working holodeck is ready. I just find all this touch screen stuff...boring and just another way to squeeze money from people.

 

[Amaris]

I would tile my bathroom with this stuff.
For no reason whatsoever.