TapSense: Touchscreen technology distinguishes taps by parts of finger

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) — Smartphone and tablet computer owners have become adept at using finger taps, flicks and drags to control their touchscreens. But Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found that this interaction can be enhanced by taking greater advantage of the finger's anatomy and dexterity.

By attaching a microphone to a touchscreen, the CMU scientists showed they can tell the difference between the tap of a fingertip, the pad of the finger, a fingernail and a knuckle. This technology, called TapSense, enables richer touchscreen interactions. While typing on a virtual keyboard, for instance, users might capitalize letters simply by tapping with a fingernail instead of a finger tip, or might switch to numerals by using the pad of a finger, rather toggling to a different set of keys.

Another possible use would be a painting app that uses a variety of tapping modes and finger motions to control a pallet of colors, or switch between drawing and erasing without having to press buttons.

"TapSense basically doubles the input bandwidth for a touchscreen," said Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). "This is particularly important for smaller touchscreens, where screen real estate is limited. If we can remove mode buttons from the screen, we can make room for more content or can make the remaining buttons larger."

TapSense was developed by Harrison, fellow Ph.D. student Julia Schwarz, and Scott Hudson, a professor in the HCII. Harrison discussed the technology on Oct. 19 at the Association for Computing Machinery's Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in Santa Barbara, Calif.

A video demonstrating the technology's capabilities and possible applications can be viewed at: http://chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/TapSense.

"TapSense can tell the difference between different parts of the finger by classifying the sounds they make when they strike the touchscreen," Schwarz said. An inexpensive microphone could be readily attached to a touchscreen for this purpose. The microphones already in devices for phone conversations would not work well for the application, however, because they are designed to capture voices, not the sort of noise that TapSense needs to operate.

The technology also can use sound to discriminate between passive tools (i.e., no batteries) made from such materials as wood, acrylic and polystyrene foam. This would enable people using styluses made from different materials to collaboratively sketch or take notes on the same surface, with each person's contributions appearing in a different color or otherwise noted.

The researchers found that their proof-of-concept system was able to distinguish between the four types of finger inputs with 95 percent accuracy, and could distinguish between a pen and a finger with 99 percent accuracy.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Carnegie Mellon University.

Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Engineers create touchscreen Braille writer

ScienceDaily (Oct. 14, 2011) — Each summer, under the red-tiled roofs and sandstone of Stanford, the Army High-Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC) invites a select group of undergraduates from across the country gather for a two-month immersion into the wonders of advanced computing.

Some of the undergraduates are gathered into teams. Some work alone. All are assigned mentors and tasked with a challenge. They compete, American Idol-style, for top honors at the end of the summer.

The competition is made possible in part by a collaboration between the U.S. Army and several university and industry partners that makes up the AHPCRC.

Adam Duran is one such undergraduate, a student both lucky and good. He is now in his senior year at New Mexico State University. Last June, he came to Stanford at the suggestion of one of his professors. His mentors were Adrian Lew, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Sohan Dharmaraja, a doctoral candidate at Stanford studying computational mathematics.

"Originally, our assignment was to create a character-recognition application that would use the camera on a mobile device -- a phone or tablet -- to transform pages of Braille into readable text," said Duran. "It was a cool challenge, but not exactly where we ended up."

Bigger fish

Even before Duran arrived for the summer, Lew and Dharmaraja began to talk to the Stanford Office of Accessible Education, people whose profession is helping blind and visually impaired students negotiate the world of higher learning. It became clear that there were bigger fish to fry.

While a Braille character reader would be helpful to the blind, Lew and Dharmaraja learned, there were logistics that were hard to get around.

"How does a blind person orient a printed page so that the computer knows which side is up? How does a blind person ensure proper lighting of the paper?" said Duran. "Plus, the technology, while definitely helpful, would be limited in day-to-day application."

"It was a nice-to-have, not a must-have," said Dharmaraja.

So, the three began to ask questions. That is when they stumbled upon a sweet spot.

"The killer app was not a reader, but a writer," said Dharmaraja.

"Imagine being blind in a classroom, how would you take notes?" said Lew. "What if you were on the street and needed to copy down a phone number? These are real challenges the blind grapple with every day."

There are devices that help the blind write Braille, to send email and so forth, but they are essentially specialized laptops that cost, in some cases, $6,000 or more. All for a device of limited functionality, beyond typing Braille, of course.

"Your standard tablet has more capability at a tenth the price," said Duran.

"So, we put two and two together. We developed a tablet Braille writer," said Dharmaraja, "A touchscreen for people who can't see."

First, however, the student-mentor team had to learn Braille. Originally developed for the French military, Braille is a relatively simple code with each character made up of variations of six dots -- or bumps, really -- arranged in a 2-by-3 matrix. The blind read by feeling the bumps with their fingertips.

As any computational mathematician will tell you, such a matrix yields two-to-the-sixth minus one variations, or 63 possible characters. These 63 characters are enough for a Western alphabet plus 10 numerical digits, with several left over for punctuation and some special characters.

Over the years, however, those 63 characters got quickly gobbled up -- through the addition of character-modification keystrokes, the total grew and now includes chemical, mathematical and other symbols.

Challenge

A modern Braille writer looks like a laptop with no monitor and an eight-key keyboard -- six to create the character, plus a carriage return and a delete key.

Duplicating the Braille keypad on a touch-based tablet seemed simple enough, but there was at least one significant challenge: How does a blind person find the keys on a flat, uniformly smooth glass panel?

Dharmaraja and Duran mulled their options before arriving at a clever and simple solution. They did not create virtual keys that the fingertips must find; they made keys that find the fingertips. The user simply touches eight fingertips to the glass, and the keys orient themselves to the fingers. If the user becomes disoriented, a reset is as easy as lifting all eight fingers off the glass and putting them down again.

"Elegant, no?" said Lew. "The solution is so simple, so beautiful. It was fun to see."

Beyond the price difference, touchscreens offer at least one other significant advantage over standard Braille writers: "They're customizable," Dharmaraja noted. "They can accommodate users whose fingers are small or large, those who type with fingers close together or far apart, even to allow a user to type on a tablet hanging around the neck with hands opposed as if playing a clarinet."

"No standard Braille writer can do this," said Professor Charbel Farhat, the chair of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department and executive director of the summer program. "This is a real step forward for the blind."

Showing off

In a demo, Duran donned a blindfold and readied himself before the touchscreen. He typed out an email address and a simple subject line. Then he typed one of the best-known mathematical formulas in the world, the Burgers Equation, and followed with the chemical equation for photosynthesis -- complex stuff -- all as if writing a note to his mother.

For Duran, who has an uncle who is blind, the greatest joy was in seeing a blind person using his creation for the first time. "That was so awesome," he said. "I can't describe the feeling. It was the best."

In the immediate future, there are technical and legal hurdles to address, but someday, perhaps soon, the blind and visually impaired may find themselves with a more cost-effective Braille writer that is both portable and blessed with greater functionality than any device that went before.

"AHPCRC is an excellent model for outreach, which not only trains undergraduate students in computational sciences but also exposes students to real-world research applications," said Raju Namburu, the cooperative agreement manager for AHPCRC.

The center addresses the Army's most difficult scientific and engineering challenges using high-performance computing. Stanford University is the AHPCRC lead organization with oversight from the Army Research Laboratory.

As for his summer courses, Farhat is optimistic. "Let's remember," he points out, "This was a two-month summer project that evolved because a few smart people asked some good questions. I'm always amazed by what the students accomplish in these courses, but this was something special. Each year it seems to get better and more impressive."

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Stanford School of Engineering. The original article was written by Andrew Myers, associate director of communications for the Stanford School of Engineering.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

TapSense: Touchscreen technology distinguishes taps by parts of finger

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) — Smartphone and tablet computer owners have become adept at using finger taps, flicks and drags to control their touchscreens. But Carnegie Mellon University researchers have found that this interaction can be enhanced by taking greater advantage of the finger's anatomy and dexterity.

By attaching a microphone to a touchscreen, the CMU scientists showed they can tell the difference between the tap of a fingertip, the pad of the finger, a fingernail and a knuckle. This technology, called TapSense, enables richer touchscreen interactions. While typing on a virtual keyboard, for instance, users might capitalize letters simply by tapping with a fingernail instead of a finger tip, or might switch to numerals by using the pad of a finger, rather toggling to a different set of keys.

Another possible use would be a painting app that uses a variety of tapping modes and finger motions to control a pallet of colors, or switch between drawing and erasing without having to press buttons.

"TapSense basically doubles the input bandwidth for a touchscreen," said Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). "This is particularly important for smaller touchscreens, where screen real estate is limited. If we can remove mode buttons from the screen, we can make room for more content or can make the remaining buttons larger."

TapSense was developed by Harrison, fellow Ph.D. student Julia Schwarz, and Scott Hudson, a professor in the HCII. Harrison discussed the technology on Oct. 19 at the Association for Computing Machinery's Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in Santa Barbara, Calif.

A video demonstrating the technology's capabilities and possible applications can be viewed at: http://chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/TapSense.

"TapSense can tell the difference between different parts of the finger by classifying the sounds they make when they strike the touchscreen," Schwarz said. An inexpensive microphone could be readily attached to a touchscreen for this purpose. The microphones already in devices for phone conversations would not work well for the application, however, because they are designed to capture voices, not the sort of noise that TapSense needs to operate.

The technology also can use sound to discriminate between passive tools (i.e., no batteries) made from such materials as wood, acrylic and polystyrene foam. This would enable people using styluses made from different materials to collaboratively sketch or take notes on the same surface, with each person's contributions appearing in a different color or otherwise noted.

The researchers found that their proof-of-concept system was able to distinguish between the four types of finger inputs with 95 percent accuracy, and could distinguish between a pen and a finger with 99 percent accuracy.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Carnegie Mellon University.

Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Video: New ZeroTouch Interface is a Touchscreen Without the Screen

Video: New ZeroTouch Interface is a Touchscreen Without the Screen | Popular Science@import "/files/css/d6aad7f7d1d1484a4d015f8ad6128167.css";@import "/files/css/33f6b7ecb4513ed2fe6c670880a27187.css"; home Login/Register Newsletter Subscribe RSS GadgetsComputersCamerasSmartphonesSmart TVsVideo GamesMore From Our Partner: CEAGCarsConceptsHybridsElectric CarsAuto DIYMore From Our Partner: DriversideScienceFuture of the EnvironmentEnergyHealthPopSci Eco TourTechnologyMilitaryAviationSpaceRobotsDIYProjectsHacksToolsAuto DIYMore From Our Partner: Toolmonger GalleriesVideosColumnsThe GrouseSex FilesGreen Dream How It WorksAuto DIYFeatures Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Reddit Print Email Video: New ZeroTouch Interface is a Touchscreen Without the Screen By Clay Dillow Posted 05.12.2011 at 1:47 pm 6 Comments
ZeroTouch via Interface Ecology Lab

At the Computer Human Interaction conference in B.C. this week, a team from Texas A&M University unveiled a touch screen technology they’ve been incubating for a couple of years that isn’t really a screen at all. ZeroTouch, as the project is known, is more like an empty picture frame lined with LEDs and filled with criss-crossing beams of infrared light. Like a mashup of traditional 2-D touch interface with the 3-D applications of, say, Microsoft’s Kinect, its applications are many.

The design seems so simple that it’s almost surprising we haven’t seen something like this until now. ZeroTouch is basically an empty window pane, and the LEDs and IR sensors mounted around its edges detect anything that crosses the plane of that frame (it can recognize up to 20 independent touch points at a time). It doesn’t just register that something is there, but also the size of the object--whether it’s a finger, an entire hand, a tiny stylus, etc.--and whether it is rotating or twisting (this is better explained visually in the video below).

Related ArticlesA New Tactile Touch Screen Can Change from Smooth to Sticky for Better FeedbackMultitoe Turns Floors Into Massive Multitouch Screens You Control With Your FeetA Mobile Touchscreen Projectable On Any Flat SurfaceTagsTechnology, Clay Dillow, computer interfaces, computers, kinect, texas a&m university, touch screens, zerotouchSince ZeroTouch allows a user not only to touch but to reach through the “screen,” it opens itself to numberless applications. Laid on a flat surface, it can be used as a drawing board or a drafting stylus. Placed over any conventional screen, it instantly and inexpensively turns it into a touch screen. Or it can be suspended in space so the user can actually reach through it, offering it a 3-D capability that other touch screen interfaces lack.

So far, such 3-D applications haven’t really been exploited beyond a pretty straightforward painting program, but the possibilities are there. The Aggies behind ZeroTouch next plan to create a layered device wherein multiple screens are stacked atop one another, giving it a greater degree of depth of control.

See it work in the IDG report below.

[PhysOrg]

Previous Article: Video: Telepresence Balloon Lets Your Boss's Face Watchfully Follow You EverywhereNext Article: Crab Nebula Emits Largest Gamma Ray Burst Ever Seen, Puzzles Astronomers 6 Comments Link to this comment Jivaii 05/12/11 at 3:26 pm

Could they make it into a kind of 3D box for full 3D interaction? Along the lines of, there's a sphere in the middle, and you reach in and brush your hand along it, and the sphere starts to rotate due to your "interaction" with it?

Proud Sailor of the USN

Link to this comment Clifford Cannon 05/12/11 at 3:59 pm

I think they have that idea, the article mentions layering several for a box like sensor.

so take that box and place it in front of one of the new glasses free 3D screens and you would have a box that you could reach into and manipulate things.

the only thing missing would be tactile sensations, no sense of touch :/ but otherwise it would be a really good tool for 3D computer work and may be popular with cadcam programs.

Link to this comment empjag 05/12/11 at 6:08 pm

Kind of reminds me of Iron Man's lab. Maybe in 10 years or so.

Link to this comment -my name here- 05/12/11 at 6:13 pm

it kind of reminds me of a theremin.

Link to this comment extremechiton 05/12/11 at 9:09 pm

lol @my name here
may be there could be a computer program that lets the zerotouch turn into a thremin.

that would be so cool!

Link to this comment JediMindset 05/14/11 at 12:01 pm

great technology. i wonder if we could apply this with hologram/3d technology? something like that touch screen in Avatar.

To comment, please Login. Popular TagsTechnology NASA International Space Station robots Burt Rutan Peter Diamandis space DARPA Airbus A380 Mars UAV global warming Boeing satellites All Tags All Photos All Videos Photo GalleriesRSS LinkTechnologyGallery: All the Hardware You Need To Build a HackintoshGallery: The Wonders of the Year 2020Archive Gallery: PopSci Visits Glorious Old NYC+ More Photo Galleries

138 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.

Popular Science+ For iPad

Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page

Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing

Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed

May 2011: How to Save The Oceans

In this issue, seven bold plans to rescue 71 percent of the planet.

Plus: Blimps are back; a blind race-car driver; the most expensive Internet cable ever; and much more.

Read the issue here.

How It Works
Smart TV Buying Guide
Sound+Vision Buying Guide

Popular on Popsci Most Viewed TechnologyThe Helicopter That Crashed in the Bin Laden Raid Was a Secret Stealth HelicopterVideo: Japanese Mind-Controlled Cat Ears Erect and Flatten To Reflect Your ThoughtsBefore the Raid, SEALs Rehearsed in a Full-Scale Replica of the Bin Laden CompoundComputer Scientists Induce Schizophrenia in a Neural Network, Causing it to Make Ridiculous ClaimsNASA Gravity Experiment Finds Space-Time Vortex Around Earth, Like a Vat of Fourth-Dimensional MolassesU. of Maryland's Human-Powered Helicopter Aims to Make Aviation History Next WeekAmazing Video: 'Jetman' Yves Rossy Makes First U.S. Flight, Cruising Above the Grand Canyon at 190 MPHSpotted: A Very Rutan-Looking Experimental Aircraft Cruising California SkiesGallery: All the Hardware You Need To Build a HackintoshSponsored Post: Philips EnduraLED Most Commented TechnologyBefore the Raid, SEALs Rehearsed in a Full-Scale Replica of the Bin Laden CompoundNASA Gravity Experiment Finds Space-Time Vortex Around Earth, Like a Vat of Fourth-Dimensional MolassesThe Helicopter That Crashed in the Bin Laden Raid Was a Secret Stealth HelicopterAmazing Video: 'Jetman' Yves Rossy Makes First U.S. Flight, Cruising Above the Grand Canyon at 190 MPHVideo: Japanese Mind-Controlled Cat Ears Erect and Flatten To Reflect Your ThoughtsComputer Scientists Induce Schizophrenia in a Neural Network, Causing it to Make Ridiculous ClaimsNew Buoyant-Aircraft Design Could Lead to Fleets of Efficient Cargo Zeppelins Video: Japanese Speedster Robot Levitates on a Cushion of AirTech Evangelists To Meet in DC to Figure Out the Future of the Postal ServiceDid the Secret 'Beast of Kandahar' Drone Provide Aerial Recon for SEAL Team Six? Most Emailed TechnologyNew Diamond Aerogel is the Airiest Diamond Ever MadeVideo: German Researchers Smash Robot Arm With a Baseball BatFinancial Trading Algorithms Aren't Just Making Deals, They're Making WarGallery: All the Hardware You Need To Build a HackintoshCrab Nebula Emits Largest Gamma Ray Burst Ever Seen, Puzzles AstronomersVideo: New ZeroTouch Interface is a Touchscreen Without the ScreenVideo: Telepresence Balloon Lets Your Boss's Face Watchfully Follow You EverywhereVideo: Japanese Speedster Robot Levitates on a Cushion of AirVideo: Ranger Robot Sets New Distance Record, Walking 40 Miles on a Single ChargeCarbon Nanotubes Coated in Bee Venom Can Detect Even a Single Molecule of Explosives Name Address 1   City State STATE Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware DC Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York N. Carolina N. Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island S. Carolina S. Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington W. Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Zip Code Email Today on PopSci.com Before the Raid, SEALs Rehearsed in a Full-Scale Replica of the Bin Laden Compound53851411Bold Plans to Save the Seas53493412FIRST Robot Competition Showcases Geekiness, Ingenuity and the Dreams of 12,000 Kids53804413Archive Gallery: PopSci's Quirkiest DIY Projects537934142020 Vision: A Look Forward To The Promises of a Truly Amazing Year53650415Video: They Sure Don't Make Pyrex Like They Used To52576416Testing the Goods: Hasbro's My3D Goggles Turn Your iPhone Into a 3-D Gaming Powerhouse53623417Archive Gallery: The Futuristic Glories of Old New York53599418How Humans Manipulate the Planet For The Sake of a Good Game53017419Atomic Gardens, the Biotechnology of the Past, Can Teach Lessons About the Future of Farming5361541102011 Skyscraper Contest: Energy Harvesters, Domes With Holes, and Other Buildings of the Future533954111Archive Gallery: Revisiting the Golden Age of Zeppelins532664112 Footer Menu SubscribeRenew SubscriptionCustomer ServiceSite MapAbout UsContact UsAdvertisingPrivacy PolicyTerms of UseAbuseRSS FeedsPS Showcase

 

Copyright © 2009 Popular Science

A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js' %3E%3C/script%3E")); COMSCORE.beacon({ c1:2, c2:"6035029", c3:" ", c4:" ", c5:"", c6:"", c15:" " });

View the original article here