Taking Touch beyond the Touch Screen A prototype tablet can sense gestures, and objects placed next to it.

Taking Touch beyond the Touch Screen A prototype tablet can sense gestures, and objects placed next to it.

  10:05:00 AM    Science Lover

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A tablet computer developed collaboratively by researchers at Intel, Microsoft, and the University of Washington can be controlled not only by swiping and pinching at the screen, but by touching any surface on which it is placed.

In touch: The spacecraft on this tablet's
screen can be controlled by maneuvering
the toy on the table next to it. Credit: Intel

Finding new ways to interact with computers has become an important area of research among computer scientists, especially now that touch-screen smart phones and tablets have grown so popular. The project that produced the new device, called Portico, could eventually result in smart phones or tablets that take touch beyond the physical confines of the device.

"The idea is to allow the interactive space to go beyond the display space or screen space," says Jacob Wobbrock, an assistant professor at the University of Washington's Information School, in Seattle, who helped develop the system. This is achieved with two foldout cameras that sit above the display on either side, detecting and tracking motion around the screen. The system detects the height of objects and determines whether they are touching the surrounding surface by comparing the two views captured by the cameras. The approach make it possible to detect hand gestures as well as physical objects so that they can interact with the display, says Wobbrock.

In one demonstration, software tracks a small ball as it moves across the surface the tablet sits on. As the ball strikes the side of the tablet, a virtual ball appears on-screen following the same trajectory, as if the physical ball had entered the device. In this way the ball can be used to score on-screen goals. In another demonstration, the angle of a toy spaceship placed on the table next to the tablet controls the angle of a virtual spaceship onscreen, allowing the user to shoot down "asteroids."



Wobbrock says the same approach would work on smart phones and other pocket-sized devices. "As devices continue to shrink, they compromise the screen space. But with Portico you can reclaim the surrounding area for interactivity," he says.

With the tablet, Portico increases the usable area sixfold, says Daniel Avrahami a senior researcher at Intel Labs Seattle, who came up with the idea for Portico, and led its development, with help from Shahram Izadi at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. For a 12-inch tablet, "that's the equivalent of a 26-inch screen," says Avrahami, who will present the work in October at the ACM User Interface, Software and Technology Symposium in Santa Barbara, California.

Eventually, says Wobbrock, it may be more practical, especially from a commercial standpoint, to use clip-on cameras instead of foldout ones, which tend to break more easily. But he also notes that the entire display might be replaced with a fold-up frame containing both cameras and a pico projector to produce the image on the surface below.

Eva Hornecker, a lecturer specializing in human-computer interaction at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, Scotland, says there is growing interest in using cameras to detect hand gestures and objects among researchers.

"The problem with touch screens is you can't detect anything that's happening over the surface," Hornecker says. However, she notes that allowing interaction beyond the screen could introduce new challenges such as how to provide feedback so the user knows where the interactive area starts and ends.

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A Touch Screen with Texture Electrovibration could make for a better sensory experience on a smooth touch surface.

A Touch Screen with Texture Electrovibration could make for a better sensory experience on a smooth touch surface.

  10:32:00 AM    Science Lover

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Touch screens are ubiquitous today. But a common complaint is that the smooth surface just doesn't feel as good to use as a physical keypad. While some touch-screen devices use mechanical vibrations to enhance users' experiences of virtual keypads, the approach isn't widely used, mainly because mechanical vibrations are difficult to implement well, and they often make the entire device buzz in your hand, instead of just a particular spot on the screen.

Subtle sensation: In this TeslaTouch demonstration, one finger is stationary while the other experiences the sensation of friction as it moves.
Credit: Disney Research

Now, engineers from three different groups are proposing a type of tactile feedback that they believe will be more popular than mechanical buzzing. Called electrovibration, the technique uses electrical charges to simulate the feeling of localized vibration and friction, providing touch-screen textures that are impossible to simulate using mechanical actuators.

One of these groups, composed of researchers from Disney Research in Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Paris Sud, presented a paper earlier this month at the User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) symposium in New York City. In the paper, they described their approach to electrovibration, called TeslaTouch, in which they modified a commercial touch panel from 3M that uses capacitive sensing -- the approach used in most mobile phones and in the iPad.

The touch panel is made of transparent electrodes on a glass plate coated with an insulating layer. By applying a periodic voltage to the electrodes via connections used for sensing a finger's position on the screen, the researchers were able to effectively induce a charge in a finger dragged along the surface. By changing the amplitude and frequency of the applied voltage, the surface can be made to feel as though it is bumpy, rough, sticky, or vibrating. The major difference is the specially designed control circuit that produces the sensations.

It's a challenge, says Ivan Poupyrev of Disney Research, to vibrate a screen in a way that makes sense for a user. When an entire device buzzes, it can be more annoying than helpful. There are also technical hurdles and extra costs in making a touch screen mechanically move. The goal, then, was to create a tactile sensation without using any mechanical motion. "It sounds crazy," Poupyrev says, "but that's what we've done with TeslaTouch."

Electrovibration was first proposed for touch screens in the 1950s, but the approach didn't see widespread use because the screens didn't achieve commercial success until recently. Now, with many researchers looking for ways to improve the now-popular screens, other groups have also rediscovered electrovibration. Nokia recently announced a smartphone prototype that uses the approach. And a Finnish company called Senseg has also implemented electrovibration in touch screens, having closed deals with three companies to incorporate the technology into products that could be available in 2011.

All three groups have filed patents for electrovibration; each outlines a different approach. Currently, the Disney demonstration only provides the feeling of texture when a finger is moving, although the group is working on a way to give feedback to a still finger. Senseg's technology, however, already provides localized feedback to a nonmoving finger, says Ville Mäkinen, founder of the company.

Another limitation of the Disney prototype is that it provides only a single sensation at a time. However, it is possible to split up the screen in various ways to generate different sensations in different parts of the screen, but the design of such a screen would most likely depend on the specific application.

Nokia is exploring ways to use the tactile feedback as a way to augment communication with another person, says Tapani Ryhänen, Nokia lab director in Cambridge, UK. "There's a possibility to use this as a type of communication," he says, "so if I do something on my screen, then you can feel it on your screen."

While electrovibration can provide a different feel for touch screens, the type of interaction is somewhat limited, says Bic Schediwy, director of research at a touch-screen company called Synaptics. Since some systems only work when a finger is moving, those systems couldn't simulate a button click, one of the biggest complaints with touch screens. Additionally, he says, in demonstrations of electrovibration systems, it appears that people have varying responses to the induced current, possibly because of varying skin thickness.

At the UIST symposium, the Disney researchers showed a range of demos to illustrate TeslaTouch, including a simulated ice-covered window that changes friction as virtual ice is removed and a racetrack that provides different sensation as a finger traverses varying terrain. On hand to test the system was Patrick Baudisch, professor of computer science at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. While the demos were simple, he says, they were "very convincing." TeslaTouch may not provide "the basis for getting rid of keyboards or such," Baudisch says, but "it really enriches the interaction on touch devices."

Disney's Poupyrev isn't sure about what his company plans to do with the technology, but the applications that are most obvious involve honing electrovibration so it could be used to more easily draw and paint on a smooth touch surface. Poupyrev also thinks electrovibration, since it is so easily implemented, could find a home in more unusual applications, such as large surfaces like wallpaper, and conformable materials like cloth.

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HTC EVO 4G: Better Than the Nexus One?

HTC EVO 4G: Better Than the Nexus One?

  1:14:00 AM    Science Lover

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Sprint's new HTC EVO 4G smartphone is being hailed as the new ruler of the Android empire. But has the crown really been passed?

The HTC EVO 4G, unveiled at the CTIA Wireless exhibition this week, sure has a feature-list fit for a king. The phone boasts a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen with HDMI output, dual front- and back-facing cameras, and a superspeedy 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Oh yeah -- and there's that whole 4G thing, too.

HTC EVO 4G vs. Nexus One: The Display

It's hard to miss all the gushing over the HTC EVO 4G's display, and there's a reason for the excitement: The phone has one sweet screen, and you don't have to be an Android fanboy to see that. The EVO 4G's 4.3-inch display beats the Nexus One's 3.7-inch offering (which beat practically everything else back when it debuted). Both devices feature the same WVGA resolution: 800-by-480.

HTC EVO 4G vs. Nexus One: The Data Network

Sprint's biggest selling point with the HTC EVO 4G is all about those final two characters. A 4G data connection, according to Sprint, brings you download speeds as much as 10 times faster than what you'd get on a flimsy old 3G alternative.

But -- and this is a big but (you're welcome, Sir Mix-a-Lot) -- you won't be able to get those tasty 4G connections in much of the country. So far, Sprint's 4G network is available only in 27 U.S. cities. The carrier has plans to expand to a handful of other major markets later this year, but that still leaves everyone else with that aforementioned flimsy old 3G.

Plus, the EVO 4G will be available only on Sprint -- so if you're in an area where network coverage is spotty, you'll be out of luck. The Nexus One, on the other hand, will soon be available on all major carriers, giving you greater choice in the data-providing department.

Which phone wins this category, then, truly depends on where you are and how the carriers' coverage compares for your specific area.

HTC EVO 4G vs. Nexus One: The Hardware

The HTC EVO 4G is powered by the same chip as the Nexus -- that snazzy-sounding 1GHz Snapdragon processor -- so there's a virtual tie in that department.

When it comes to cameras, the HTC EVO 4G is victorious: Its back has an 8-megapixel camera and its front features a 1.3-megapixel one. The Nexus One, in comparison, has a single 5-megapixel photo-snapper.

HTC EVO 4G vs. Nexus One: The Body

The HTC EVO 4G is slightly larger than its Google-endorsed cousin (4.8-by-2.6-by-0.5 inches, compared to 4.69-by-2.35-by-0.45 inches). It's about 1.4 ounces heavier, too.

A deal-breaker? Unless you're Thumbelina, probably not. 

HTC EVO 4G vs. Nexus One: The OS

Both the HTC EVO 4G and the Nexus One are running Android 2.1, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. Despite the matching versions, however, the user experience will be quite different on the two phones.

The reason is that the HTC EVO 4G runs HTC's Sense user interface, while the Nexus One uses the stock Android interface. The Sense interface gives Android an entirely different look, with specialized home screen widgets and custom navigation tools. As far as which is better, it's really just a matter of personal preference.

One area where the Nexus One's setup will have a distinct advantage, though, is in future Android upgrades: Given the fact that the phone is running the stock Android interface, updating it to a new OS version will be a simple and likely delay-free process (the fact that the Nexus One is Google's baby probably won't hurt, either). Custom interfaces such as HTC's Sense tend to take more time to update, as the manufacturer has to rebuild the interface around the revised platform.

HTC EVO 4G vs. Nexus One: The Data Perks

Sprint is billing the HTC EVO 4G as a mobile hotspot, meaning you can connect up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices to the phone and use its data connection to get them on the Internet.

It's not difficult to set up tethering on any Android phone (even if some carriers may discourage it). Still, this built-in multidevice functionality is certainly a perk worth considering.

HTC EVO 4G vs. Nexus One: The Final Judgment

Ultimately, the truth is that there'll never be an end-all Android phone; it really comes down to what's right for you. Given the nature of the platform's open ecosystem, a new contender will always be right around the corner, and hyperbole-loving bloggers will always be chomping at the bit to label it the "killer" of everything else.

That, my friends, is the one thing you can count on.

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