Tag Archives: touch sensitive

DIY Touch Sensitive Nightstand: a Light Touch

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Disney’s miraculous touch-sensitive technology isn’t available yet, but Tinkering Techie found a way to discreetly incorporate current tech to his furniture. He made a wooden nightstand and installed three capacitive touch strips underneath its overhanging edges. Then he made a custom circuit so that he could control the nightstand’s lights and a lamp through touch.

touch sensitive nightstand by tinkering techie 620x413magnify

The strips are located on the front and side edges of the nighstand. Tapping any of them once turns on an RGB LED nightlight underneath the drawer, while a double tap turns on the lamp on the nightstand. The lights can then be turned off with a single tap. Tinkering Techie also said that he can use the double tap gesture on any 120v device in place of the lamp.

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As you’ll see in the video below, Tinkering Techie also installed another RGB LED on the drawer that lights up when the drawer is opened. The touch strips can also be used to adjust the color of the nightlight and drawer LEDs.

Check out Tinkering Techie’s blog for more on his project.

[via Bit Rebels]

Touch Board Turns Touch Into Sound (and More): Synthetic Synesthesia

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Last month I talked about Bare Conductive’s Electric Paint Pen, which can be used to make simple or hidden circuits. Thanks to the company’s newest product, you can use the pen to make more complex and fun devices. Bare Conductive’s Touch Board turns anything conductive – including the Electric Paint and your body – into a trigger for its built-in mp3 player or MIDI device.

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The simplest way to use the Touch Board is to load an MP3 file to a microSD card and load the card to the board. Then you just connect a conductive material and a Li-Po battery to the board. Now all you need to do is touch the conductive material and the Touch Board will play the MP3 file.

touch board by bare conductive 2magnify

The Touch Board also has a distance sensor, which means you can set it so that you don’t even have to touch your sensor to trigger the Touch Board.

touch board by bare conductive 3magnify

Combine it with the Electric Paint and some creativity and you can make neat stuff like a cardboard boombox, a talking wall, a cookie thief alarm and more. But that’s not all. The Touch Board is also compatible with Arduino Shields, so you can extend its functionality beyond just triggering sounds. Anything that an Arduino Shield can do, you can turn into a distance- or touch-activated action.

Pledge at least  £45 (~$72 USD) on Kickstarter to get a Touch Board as a reward. Bare Conductive will even throw in a microSD card and an Electric Paint Pen with your Touch Board unit.

eBookmark Bridges eBooks and Real Books

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Like many of us, Terry Burton and Jinna Kim find themselves witnessing – and contributing to – the slow but inevitable death of paper books. The husband and wife team decided to make a functional artwork that bridges the gap between eBooks and their ancestors. Their eBookmark not only lets you save a book page, it also lets you specify the paragraph where you stopped. How does it work? With a minimalist touch interface, of course.

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The eBookmark has a balsa wood body. Inside are LEDs, a touch-sensitive strip, a battery and an Atmel 8-bit processor. It also has a switch up top for pointing out either the left or right page and can be extended to accommodate larger books.

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I know that Terry and Jinna made the eBookmark as an artistic statement, but it would’ve been nicer if it had a motion sensor that caused the LEDs to turn on only when the book is opened. If you’re actually looking for a more precise bookmark, check out this bookmark by Fred & Friends.

[via 7 Electrons via Hack A Day]

Canon EOS 70D Digital SLR Camera is Introduced Today

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Canon has had a significant influence upon the film-making crowd. Via its technologically sophisticated cameras it has won over millions of fans worldwide. Picture perfection, mobility and reasonable...

Mycestro Wearable 3D Mouse: Cursor Conductor

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Wearable mice have been done before, but Nick Mastandrea’s Mycestro might be the best implementation of the form factor yet. Like other wearable mice, Mycestro – it’s pronounced “mice-tro”, get it? – is designed to be worn on your index finger. But instead of a small trackpad, Mycetro lets you control your cursor by waving your finger around.

mycestro 3d mouse by nick mastandrea

If it seems like a stupid idea to you, temper your cynicism. Mycestro can be calibrated and it’s sensitive enough to read even small movements. You don’t have to emulate an orchestra conductor to move your cursor around. Aside from tracking motion, the Mycetro also has touch-sensitive left-, right- and middle-click buttons. You can swipe your thumb along those three buttons to scroll up or down.

Mycestro is also designed to activate only when your thumb is touching it, so you don’t have to worry about your cursor running wild while you move your hand about. That smart feature should also help conserve its battery, which lasts up to 8 hours and can be recharged via USB.

The Mycestro can also be used with devices that support Bluetooth 4.0. Here’s a brief demo of the Mycestro being used to control an Internet-connected TV:

Here Nick shows how it can be used to control Solidworks CAD software.

Pledge at least $79 (USD) on Kickstarter to reserve a Mycestro. It seems like a decent alternative to the traditional mouse, but I am curious if the Leap sensor – which is cheaper yet more versatile than the Mycestro – will render it obsolete. Then again it is more portable and has its touch-sensitive hardware going for it.

[via Digital Trends]

EveryTouchFX Touch Sensor: Switch from Switches

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Are you eagerly waiting for Disney’s mind-blowing touch technology to become mainstream? You might want to settle for this touch sensor for the meantime. It’s called the EveryTouchFX, a system that’s meant to replace mechanical switches with a hidden touch-based switch.

everytouchfx touch sensor

I think the picture above sums up the magic of EveryTouchFX. The sensor itself is hidden under the rock, but as you’ll see in the video below you can touch just the rock and the sensor will still detect the input. The inventors didn’t elaborate on their technology in their Indiegogo write-up, only that EveryTouchFX is designed to recognize only the electric potential of the human body. It can also detect touch from behind insulation that’s up to 4″ thick. Combine those two capabilities and you can hide the sensor pretty much anywhere.

While it certainly has a lot of decorative and security-related applications, EveryTouchFX has one big drawback: it’s expensive. As of this writing you have to pledge at least $119 (USD) on its Indiegogo fundraiser to get one unit. I wonder if it’s possible to use the MaKey MaKey for the same purpose.

Qii Roll-up Mobile Keyboard: Cool Design, But Will It Be Made?

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There are plenty of options for people who prefer to get stuff done on their mobile devices using an external keyboard. While I do have a bluetooth keyboard for my iPad, I rarely use one for my iPhone. It’s not very convenient to carry a keyboard with your smartphone, and it’s not that difficult to become a fast thumb-typer on one anyhow. However, if you have problems or want to do more writing, then check out this mobile roll-up keyboard.

roll up qii keyboard mobile concept

The Qii keyboard is a full-sized keyboard that can roll up into a compact container, and can work with mobile devices. The keyboard uses a flexible electronic film and a touch-sensing technology that can detect both position and force. It’s also got a touchpad that can function like a mouse. It’s made of durable materials that can resist dirt and water, and can withstand lots of wear and tear.

Before you get too excited, the team behind this project are funding the project through Indiegogo  and are trying to raise the rather ridiculous sum of $1,850,000. It’s also very expensive for a keyboard – with the lowest cost option being $120(USD). At the time of writing, they’ve got about $12,000 banked with 12 days of funding left, so the chances that this will make it to market are slim – at least through this fundraising campaign.

qii unrolled

[via DVice]

BeetBox Drum Machine: Beets That Make Beats

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Self-described maker of things Scott Garner made a drum machine out of beets and a Raspberry Pi. It works like most drum machines and synthesizers, except instead of buttons or pads, the user touches the root crop to trigger the drum samples.

beetbox by scott garner

As you can see Scott focused on hiding the electronic side of the BeetBox around and inside its wooden enclosure, which makes its function all the more surprising.

Check out Scott’s blog for more information on the BeetBox. These days we love to flaunt our gadgets and technological achievements, but as electronic components get smaller and better, I think we’ll see more and more of these explorations – and finally actual products – that return to a more natural aesthetic or form of interaction. I would love to live in a world where we highlight the beauty of nature and have electronics that blend seamlessly with our environment. Though in a way that’s kind of creepy as well.

[via NOTCOT]

Sensus iPhone 4/4S Touch Sensitive Case: iPhone Vita

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The rear touch-panel is one of the most unique features of the Sony’s PS Vita. Now, a Minnesota-based company called Canopy wants to bring that same feature to the iPhone 4 and 4S with the Sensus, a protective case with built in capacitive touch sensors.

canopy sensus iphone 4 4s touch sensitive capacitive case

A rear touch-panel won’t be beneficial in all apps or situations because iOS apps weren’t made with this hardware in mind. That said, it could make some games more fun or playable and make it easier to look at documents. Canopy says the Sensus also has two built-in microprocessors to handle the gestures and touch input on the case, so there’s no additional burden on the iPhone’s own CPU.

If you pre-order Sensus right now you’ll only pay $39 (USD) (plus $7 shipping), significantly discounted from its $59 retail price. It seems like a product with a lot of potential, but still If I were you I’d hold off my purchase until we see more details, demos and support from app developers. Also, they need a version for the iPhone 5.

[via Joystiq]


Disney’s Botanicus Interacticus Lets You Play Plant Hero

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Not content with turning inanimate objects into touch sensitive interfaces, Disney Research is now developing a noninvasive technology they call Botanicus Interacticus, which turns plants into touch sensitive input devices.

botanicus interacticus by disney research

In simple terms, an electrode is buried into the soil where a plant has taken root. This allows Disney’s researchers to apply a weak current to the plant at multiple frequencies. The use of multiple frequencies helps the researchers identify not just when but also where the plant is being touched. These signals can then be used in a variety of ways – the demo below shows plants being used to play music and video.

Imagine having just a couple of plants inside your room instead of switches. Or perhaps you can make it so your door will only unlock when you touch a nearby plant in a certain way. That sounded wrong, but you get what I mean.

[via BuzzFeed]