Originally published October 13 2003
Computer / Human Interface Advance Transforms Any Wall Into A Touch Screen
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Each time you touch an object, any object, you create a vibration signature that's unique to the shape and density of the object combined with the placement of your touch. Ultra sensitive microphones can "listen" to this and take a fairly good guess about the X and Y coordinates of your touch. Throw in a little computing power and you've got a brand new computer / human interface.
But is it really all that useful to touch walls in an effort to control your computer mouse? That's just the proof of concept, it turns out. This technology has implications that go way beyond your computer mouse or your office wall. Combined with sufficiently advanced display technology, you could have floating, virtual keyboards on your tabletop, or a navigation bar on your desk.
And it's ultra portable, too. There's nothing to carry other than a tiny microphone and whatever interface hardware (cable, etc.) is necessary to plug this in to a computer.
Of course, this is all speculation. The technology is just being explored. But it has potentially grand applications.
It may sound like science fiction, but this could be the way we
interact with computers in the future, thanks to a pan-European research
project, led by experts at Cardiff University, Wales, UK.
It will explore how physical objects such as walls, windows and table
tops, can in effect become giant 3D touch screens, acting as an
interface between any computer and its user.
The whole project is based on the principle that interacting with any
physical object produces acoustic waves both within the object and on
its surface.
While acoustic sensing techniques have been used for many years in
both military and industrial applications, none is suitable for the
multimedia applications envisaged by Tai-Chi.
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