Paul Martin
09-10-2007, 10:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.internetnews.com/wireless/article.php/3696346' target='_blank'>http://www.internetnews.com/wireles...cle.php/3696346</a><br /><br /></div><i>"A joint project between Microsoft Research (MSR) and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL) has resulted in a novel solution – touch screens on both the front and back of a mobile device that are used simultaneously. The user's thumbs touch the front screen while the other eight fingers touch the back on what's been termed the LucidTouch "see through" mobile device interface. To be precise, the device's screen is not actually transparent. Instead, a camera on a short boom attached to the prototype's back captures images of the user's hands touching the rear screen, and an image of the fingers -- to enable the user to "see" where his or her fingers are touching -- is displayed on the front screen as if the device were transparent. "</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/martin-20070910-internetnews-multitouch.jpg" /><br /><br />Pretty cool idea of trying to gain more screen area for input without making larger devices. Right now, the <a href="http://patrickbaudisch.com/projects/lucidtouch/index.html">LucidTouch</a> research project is using UMPC-sized devices with a hope to move to PDAs and tablet PCs. What kind of uses can you see for this type of project?<br /><br />Here's a video of the LucidTouch project in action:<br /><br /><object width="300" height="247"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RsNFZAEssPQ"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RsNFZAEssPQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="300" height="247"></embed></object>