Tag Archives: Touchscreen

A movable knob puts a tactile twist on the modern touch screen car dashboard

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Touch screens are great and all, but they aren’t always the best solutions for controlling things, especially when you need to keep one hand on the dash and both eyes on the road.

The cars of the future are imagined to have almost no physical controls. They might not even have steering wheels if the promise of self-driving vehicles gets fulfilled perfectly. Buttons and knobs will be a thing of the past, replaced by slick screens you can simply glide your finger on. Reality, however, still needs to catch up with our imaginations, and our fingers and hands are still critical in how we interact with cars.

Designer: Gabor Jutasi

Touch screens provide more controls and functionality in a small amount of space, while buttons, dials, and switches are not only limited functionality but also restricted by the laws of physics. Until we finally make tactile touch screens a reality, however, there is one thing that physical controls can do that touch screens can’t provide. More often than not, you don’t have to look at a button to know that it’s on or off, nor do you have to look at a dial when twisting its knob.

This “no look” functionality is critically important when driving, where your eyes should be on the road, not the touch screen. At the same time, we can’t feasibly turn back the clock on car dashboards, so we need a compromise that takes these needs and limitations into account. Enter the Electric Car Dashboard, where a simple, movable knob does the trick.

Actually, that knob is anything but simple and is a sophisticated device on its own. It has a dynamic display on the top that changes its content depending on where you place it on the dash. It also acts as a button you can push to access more functionality that would otherwise require a second knob.

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The idea is that this dial gives drivers the necessary physical control they can turn in order to adjust the volume or the temperature without even looking at the screen. The knob’s function isn’t fixed, however, and you can move it to a different portion of the screen to make it control a different setting, like skipping to the next or previous track in a playlist. And in case there’s more than just one setting in that position, you push the knob’s button to switch to the next set.

This kind of multi-functional dynamic knob isn’t just a concept, though. Microsoft already demonstrated this in action with the Surface Dial. Of course, there are plenty of things to iron out with this Electric Car Dashboard concept, and it isn’t a foolproof solution either. It is, however, a very interesting one that creatively combines the digital and the physical in a way that doesn’t compromise one or the other.

The post A movable knob puts a tactile twist on the modern touch screen car dashboard first appeared on Yanko Design.

Touchscreens drive our world, but they still suck in 2022

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Companies would have us dreaming of a future filled with displays we can see through and screens we touch to use, but the current state of the technology makes that future vision a little less convincing.

Our world today revolves around computers in all shapes, sizes, and power. A good number of them have screens, and a growing number of these even have touch screens. What was once limited to phones and kiosks is now becoming mainstream, even on laptops that can’t bend backward completely to become a tablet. In the near future, almost every foreseeable physical interface to a computer could be through these touchscreens. But if the current condition of the technology is to be considered, they have a long way to go before becoming the ideal way we interact with the computers around us.

State of the Art

That’s not to say that touch screens haven’t evolved significantly over the past years. The world graduated from the resistive touch screens of old, like those used by Palm, to the capacitive technology heralded by the very first iPhone. Screens have become more pixel-dense, resulting in higher quality images and also more responsive, especially for gaming purposes.

Designer: BOE

Let’s not forget the latest trends in mobile either, like foldable and rollable displays for phones and even TVs. But while these seemingly futuristic developments indeed impress in their visual appearance and design, they all still feel unnatural and artificial to us humans. And yet most of the products and experiences that visionaries and futurists talk about depend on these touch screens becoming second nature.

Designer: LG

Designer: Samsung

Future Vision

Before the metaverse, many companies fed people a vision of the future where you’d not only see a screen everywhere; you’d also be able to interact with them. In addition to almost paper-thin screens that fold like a newspaper, we’re also shown bus stations with interactive walls, windows that display information and can be tinted with a swipe of a finger, and store displays that let you try out clothes without even putting them on.

Designer: Microsoft

Even with the buzz around VR, AR, MR, XR, and the metaverse, some people will prefer to use screens rather than put on glasses and gloves to navigate the digital realm. Until the day we can project holograms anywhere and interact with them without any special device, touch screens will still be the most immediate way we can interact with devices and the digital realm. Videos and images depicting these feature visions make them look so fluid and so natural. But as anyone who has used phones and tablets, touch screens are anything but.

Designer: Corning

Human Factor

There is no perfect input method for computers, at least nothing that has been developed yet. Keyboard and mice carry with them the risk of repetitive strain injury, while styluses are an imperfect approximation of pencils and pens, especially when you consider that they’re sliding on glass. And while touch screens can practically turn any surface into an input device, they seem to almost go against aspects of human nature itself.

Feedback

Humans have five basic senses, but most of us tend to take the other three or four for granted until we lose them. Despite their name, touch screens actually feel unnatural precisely because they don’t complete the whole tactile picture that our minds need to process when interacting with physical objects. Pushing a button looks like pushing a button but also requires our brains to make something like a leap of faith that it really does what it’s supposed to do.

Tactile response and haptic feedback for touch screens have long been on the plate of engineers and designers, but we’re no closer to cracking the code. There have been numerous patents filed to solve that puzzle, from deformable screens to extremely localized vibrations, but those have mostly remained in the realm of ideas. We still have ways to go, and our brains haven’t yet evolved to the point that we can just ignore the human need for touch.

Designer: Tactus Technology

Touchscreens aren’t great at accessibility either, and their use often requires fine motor control. There are settings to increase the sensitivity of the touch sensor, but these are mostly band-aid solutions to an inherent problem. Of course, some devices do allow for alternate input methods like voice control, but these often come up short and don’t provide all the features and conveniences of a touch-centric user experience.

Familiarity

Humans are also creatures of habit, which is how many of us have been able to survive through the millennia. We are able to memorize some activities and have them run on autopilot while our minds are more actively engaged in other aspects. Imagine how the world would have been like if we had to put intense focus on writing a simple letter because we have to remember how to do each stroke.

Designers: Stephen Cheng & Chris Andreae

Part of that is thanks to muscle memory, which, in turn, depends on things being where they are almost 100% of the time. You don’t have to look at the keyboard each time to check if the letter “q” hasn’t moved around, and neither do you need to double-check that the left mouse button hasn’t switched sides. Some people in the past have grown the ability to type quickly and accurately on the T9 keypad of old phones because their fingers knew exactly where each button was and how many times to press it for specific letters. In contrast, it’s nearly impossible to use a touch screen without looking at it, especially when software updates change how big buttons are or where they’re located.

Designer: Apple

That’s not to say that humans will remain this way forever. In the past decades alone, we have formed habits and developed gestures that already look alien to older generations. Conversely, younger people have a hard time believing that anyone could type out messages using a keypad with rapid speed and deadly accuracy. Evolution, however, doesn’t happen in just a span of decades or even centuries, and humans will continue to remain beholden to their senses and the physicality of their bodies.

Flexibility

Touch screens, being based on digital user interfaces, have the advantage of not being locked to a single implementation. It’s definitely much easier to change the layout of a screen than to change the knobs on a physical panel. The arrival of foldable and rollable panels also means that screens have become literally more flexible, but these are not the kinds of flexibility that today’s touch screens lack.

Touch screens actually put limits on how you can use them or the devices they’re attached to. The number of gloves advertised to work with touch screens is a testament to how these screens aren’t usable under conditions where their analog counterparts have no problem. You can’t confidently take out your phone under a heavy downpour, but you’ll have no problems using a payphone with your soaking hands.

Designer: Adrien Beyk of Quanta Vici

Devices that rely on touch screens also become nearly useless when those screens break. Sometimes, it’s not even possible to back up or reset a phone so that you can safely send it for repairs without worrying about your private data. They need to be repaired or replaced first before the device can even be wiped, which defeats the purpose of securing the phone first. Until then, the device is as good as dead, no matter how advanced or how powerful it might be.

Endgame: Sustainability

Touch screens are the most common ways we interact with devices today, be it phones, computers, interactive displays, or smart home hubs. They might become the main points of interaction for everything in the world in the near future, short of being able to manipulate holograms and virtual objects floating in thin air. It is somewhat ironic, then, that they are the least sustainable among the different input methods we have today.

Displays themselves already consume power, and the materials used to make them aren’t the most environment-friendly options. Companies like Samsung are developing more power-efficient panels to reduce electricity consumption, and some are looking into alternative materials for components. Unfortunately, that’s just part of the problem.

Designer: Fairphone

The entire industry and its ecosystem seemed to be designed to be unsustainable by default. Only one phone manufacturer, for example, has made repairability and sustainability its main selling point, and it’s just a small drop in the ocean. Screens, in general, feel like throwaway components that add to the growing e-waste of the planet. Device manufacturers generally frown upon self-repairs and third-party replacements, making the process costly as well. In a future where there will be screens left and right as the primary way we interact with things in our world, that vision becomes a bit of a nightmare, especially for our planet.

A New Hope

Things don’t have to end on a depressing note, of course. Humans are pretty creative and ingenious in finding solutions to their problems, even if it takes a long time to develop the correct one. The current state of technology, particularly with touch screens, just represents a milestone in history, not its final state. Fortunately, there are clear signs of things turning for the better.

As mentioned, there are efforts to make screens themselves be more power-efficiency and consume less electricity. These might sound like small wins, but they do all add up. When all our screens use only a fraction of the power they do today, the overall carbon footprint these devices incur can significantly be reduced.

Designer: Samsung

Additionally, big companies today are now more aware of the environmental impacts of their products and processes, as well as their responsibilities in making sure that future generations still have a world to live in. Some are trying to switch to more sustainable packaging solutions, while many are trying to reduce their carbon emissions during production. We still have a lot of work to do, however, in making products more sustainable and repairable, prolonging their life even beyond legally required warranties.

The other technical problems, unfortunately, might be harder to solve with the current state of our technologies. Screens that can deform to give a better tactile response when pressing a button are very much the dream of many display makers, engineers, and designers. It’s not something we might be able to achieve this year, but it is definitely something to look forward to in our future visions.

The post Touchscreens drive our world, but they still suck in 2022 first appeared on Yanko Design.

This nifty gadget turns any laptop or desktop monitor into a massive iPad Pro and Stylus

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Plug the Hello X3 in the top left corner of any display (or any flat surface) and suddenly you have a stylus-capable screen that you can draw on, annotate against, and present with.

Up until just 5 minutes ago, I was ready to throw a little over a grand at a new, 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil. I’m honestly reconsidering now after stumbling across this $120 gadget that transforms any flat surface into a stylus-friendly touchscreen. Titled the YELANG Hello X3, this 3-axis-shaped device plugs onto the corner of any flat rectangular surface (although it’s much more useful when mounted on a display), practically turning it into an iPad. The Hello X3 works with displays as large as 27-inches, and comes along with a pressure-sensitive stylus too to rival the Apple Pencil.

Click Here to Buy Now: $120 $189 (37% off) Hurry! Just 14 hours left!

Currently in its third generation (hence the X3 suffix), the Hello X3 expands on what its previous generations could do. It comes with a camera-sensor that can now read surface areas that are anywhere between 10-27 inches, has 2mm precision (which is alright, to be honest), a 120 fps response time, and here’s the best part, compatibility with both Macintosh and Windows-based systems. Just plug it onto your iMac or your Windows desktop monitor and you’ve got yourself a massive tablet PC that you can sketch on, make models in, edit documents, sign papers, or even use in a bunch of other productivity apps and softwares. If you’re traveling, the Hello X3 plugs right off and is portable enough to be carried right in your bag along with the stylus.

The Hello X3’s universal design is perhaps its biggest selling point, but it’s also matched by the fact that setting it up on a new device is ridiculously simple. Just pop the gadget on the top-left of the screen (it works with left-handed as well as right-handed users), plug it in via USB, and you’re ready to calibrate it. To calibrate the Hello X3 to your screen, just tap the 4 corners of the display with the stylus and you’re done. The stylus is thick and grippy like a marker or a fountain-pen, and sports a pressure-sensitive tip that can make thicker strokes if you press harder and thinner strokes if you lightly touch a surface. In just minutes, your 4K monitor turns into a graphics tablet.

The Hello X3 works with regular surfaces too. If you’re not really comfortable with drawing on vertical surfaces (which, let’s face it, can get uncomfortable), just plug the Hello X3 onto a drawing pad or a clipboard and you’ve got yourself a makeshift tablet PC (remember the Wacom Intuos?). This setup works rather well when you’re using a projector too, instead of a laptop or a desktop monitor. Each Hello X3 comes along with its own drawing-board for good measure, and a stand for your stylus when it’s not in use. The stylus has a standby time of 120 days, and a use-time of 4 hours, although it charges completely in just under 30 minutes. The YELANG Hello X3 is currently in its final hours of funding and is set to ship as early as September. Grab it at its special early-bird price of $120 on Kickstarter!

Click Here to Buy Now: $120 $189 (37% off) Hurry! Just 14 hours left!

Apple and Star Trek inspired the neat, interactive, and clean design and UX/UI for this coffee machine!

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I love coffee, I love Apple and I love Star Trek, and thereby I love the Elemental coffee machine because it combines ‘elements’ from them all! The sleek machine has a silhouette of an espresso group-head with an intuitive modern touch interface. The clean form is a nod to how easy it is to use and a freshly brewed pot of coffee is still the center of attention here.

Torres takes a very stripped-back, modernist approach, with nothing hidden in terms of the machine’s function. You can see everything you need to make a good cup of coffee which adds clarity to the simple form. The interface is completely touch-based and therefore the UI had to be intuitive while still communicating movement as well as a sense of urgency. The UI is a homage to the ‘okudagrams’, an loving name given to the interactive and usually re-organizable displays found on control panels and computer interfaces in 23rd and 24th-century starships. It started with Star Trek and then spread to every sci-fi thing ever. The idea of integrating it here was to alleviate the comparatively long time it takes for filter coffee to brew, it almost gives the illusion that more is happening than there actually is.”I wanted to avoid the basic – almost traditional at this point – style of touch UI so I went with more of a sci-fi theme inspired by TNG LCARS, but actually, you know – usable,” says Torres.

The conceptual coffee maker also incorporates a digital scale to the hopper lid and a simple twist will push the beans into the grinder. The latch would also have a switch to activate the grinder and the cover has to be shut in order to complete the circuit. There is a sneaky little MacPro reference in the internal compartments because it looked much neater than bare PCBs and offered more protection from any potential leaks. The intricate grooves on the dripper were an attempt to avoid having a sprinkler in order to distribute the water evenly to the coffee grounds. The heating element is also woven into this section to prevent hot water from needing to be pumped up the exposed pipe and potentially causing a safety hazard.

“There was limited capacity for physical prototyping, so CAD + simulation software was used to quickly iterate and solve problems with the design. Surprisingly, this actually worked fairly well, at least in this case. Blender mantaflow simulations were used on the CAD models were used to help drive the water channels and filter arrangement,” explained Torres. Now, all I can think of is getting a good cup of coffee and watching sci-fi movies.

Designer: Leo Torres

Add a Touchbar to your keyboard with this sleek, infinitely customizable touchscreen gadget!

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The Touchbar on the MacBook honestly felt like a solution without a concrete problem. It was designed to be a highlight feature without a highlight purpose, and was probably reduced to being something that people used just as a volume slider while watching videos. The Touchbar, in my opinion, failed because it lacked the two C’s – Context, and Customizability. CORSAIR’s iCUE NEXUS fixes that with its infinitely customizable little keyboard attachment that does anything from work as a miniature app launcher to a control panel, to even an always-on ticker tape that lets you see your computer stats or the GameStop stock price!

The CORSAIR iCUE NEXUS forms a modular add-on to CORSAIR’s line of high-end performance and gaming gear. The nifty little gadget can be used independently or snapped right to the top of a selection of CORSAIR keyboards, turning them into command-centers. Powered by the company’s iCUE software, the gadget’s screen can be entirely customized, fitting as many as 6 different buttons or modules into it to suit your needs. You can create custom layouts that change based on the program you’re running, and the capacitive-touch display lets you do everything from tapping to sliding. The screen measures 5-inches diagonally, and comes with a resolution of 640×48. The iCUE NEXUS’s power, however, lies in its contextual flexibility, letting you control practically any aspect of your computer with it. As mentioned earlier, you could use it to launch programs, but you could even control options within each program, changing features, display settings, or even controlling your computer audio with it. Moreover, it ties in with CORSAIR’s other equipment too, letting you customize and change color layouts on your keyboard, mouse, and desktop, activate or mute your headphone’s microphone, or even monitor your machine’s performance and control aspects like fan-speed, etc. With the ability to customize up to 256 screens at once, the iCUE NEXUS promises to do what the Touchbar could not. It focuses heavily on context, while giving you an infinite world of customizability.

Designer: CORSAIR

NHTSA wants Tesla to recall 158,000 Tegra 3-equipped vehicles

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Years ago, Tesla touted that the large touchscreens in its electric vehicles were powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 3 chipset. However, as configured in certain cars, the infotainment setup has a known issue that causes the 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory device...

Move aside Apple magic mouse, this touch-screen wireless mouse is the next logical evolution we need!

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Imagine this: In a post-pandemic world, you are traveling and attempting to work on a cramped work surface. It may be an airplane’s foldable seat tray, a small coffee shop table, etc. When you’re working on a limited table surface, it is difficult to fit your computer – let alone an accessory like a wireless mouse. Enter the T001. This touch-screen mouse negates the need for a flat surface to direct the cursor. You could literally hold the mouse in your lap and move the cursor by tracing your finger across the glass. Additionally, the mouse’s flat, sleek shape fits into your pocket like a phone, just like a phone.

The idea of a purely touch-screen mouse is intriguing, as it deviates from the standard design. Functionally and aesthetically, the T001 resembles a tablet or phone more than a computer mouse. The result is a clean interface – with a bright, eye-catching gradient for the background. This visual, reminiscent of a phone’s background screen, reinforces the connection between the T001 mouse and the touch-screen devices that inspired its creation. However, the lack of physical buttons may leave something to be desired. For reference, the Apple Magic Mouse has a similar, streamlined look, but still kept the tactile clicking function. Will its absence throw off its usability for users? Or is this the inevitable next step in the evolution of wireless mouse design? It would be interesting to see how users adjust to a “button-less” product when most people have grown accustomed to having that tactile feedback.

Designer: Alex Terol

The PhonePad turns your smartphone into a laptop with a 15.6″ touchscreen display

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You’ve obviously heard the analogy of your smartphone being a computer you can fit into your pocket. Smartphones have the same components most tablets and laptops have. They connect to the internet, have powerful processors, can multitask, and with their variety of apps, allow you to do everything you possibly could on a laptop… the only distinction being they’re small enough to slide into your pockets. While that’s definitely an achievement, the smartphone’s small size actually is what prevents it from being a full-fledged replacement to your computer. You can’t really enjoy movies on a 5-inch screen, or efficiently make presentations, or read through long documents – these are places where a larger display just helps. The PhonePad gives your smartphone that larger display… and much more.

Designed as a sleek, wired display that’s compatible with any smartphone, tablet, or even laptop, the PhonePad gives you an instant FullHD external display measuring at 15.6-inches, complete with a touchscreen surface. Plug the PhonePad into your smartphone and it instantly scales it up. You can operate your phone using PhonePad’s touchscreen, and enjoy the benefit of a larger display, perfect for watching Netflix or playing Fortnite (or Among Us, whichever suits you). However, the true potential of the PhonePad is in turning your smartphone into a laptop. Given that your iPhone or Android phone already has the processing power and the app-store to let you do everything from attending meetings to typing mails, making spreadsheets, communicating on Slack, and sharing files, the PhonePad completes the laptop experience by giving you a larger screen, along with multiple ports, a headphone jack, and a powerful set of speakers! Just hook the PhonePad up using a USB cable and you have a much larger, latency-free display. You can even hook a wireless keyboard and mouse to your phone and you literally have a laptop running a mobile OS!

Moreover, if you’re a hardcore laptop user, the PhonePad simply upgrades your workflow by giving you a secondary display. Connect it to your laptop and you instantly have a multi-window setup that you can use for work, entertainment, gaming, or a combination of the previous 3. The PhonePad measures a mere 0.2 inches and weighs 0.95 lbs, allowing you to slip it right into your bag or under your arm and carry it wherever you go. It comes with its own cover too that doubles as a stand, allowing you to use the PhonePad in both landscape and portrait orientations! Its universal compatibility makes it even better, giving you the ability to connect it to almost all your devices that support external displays… like your smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, Nintendo Switch, or even your DSLR! Yeah, you heard me!

Designer: Anyware Technology

This Apple x Procreate controller knob for the iPad Pro upgrades your artistic workflow!

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Simon Pavy’s Apple x Procreate controller concept falls perfectly in line with a few hardware-controllers we’ve seen in the past from Adobe and Wacom, and even from Microsoft for its Surface line. Designed to speed up an artist’s workflow, the knob works in tandem with the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil, providing a precision-rotating controller along with a touchscreen interface for pro-users.

The Apple x Procreate controller measures around 2-inches in diameter. With a rotating body, and a liquid retina touchscreen surface on the top, the controller really lets you precisely control aspects of your workflow. The rotating knob lets you very intuitively increase or decrease brush sizes, cycle through layers, adjust colors, or even play around with other settings, while the touch surface on the top works as a brilliant dedicated color palette, and an interface for cycling through layers, experimenting with brushes, or quickly going through your list of brushes while you work on your art piece. The puck-shaped controller comes with its own battery, and a USB-C port to charge it (you could just hook it to the iPad Pro). It even boasts of a non-slip surface on the base, allowing you to place it on even slanted tables for extra comfort. Sadly though, the Apple x Procreate controller is a fan-made conceptual product, although I don’t see why the designer couldn’t build a prototype and crowdfund it… I know I’d definitely buy one!

Designer: Simon Pavy