Reach Out and Touch Something

Carnegie Mellon and Disney Research have teamed up to create a prototype called Touché that turns almost any surface — from solid to liquid — into a multifaceted touch surface.

Via Carnegie Mellon:

A doorknob that knows to lock or unlock based on how it is grasped. A smartphone that silences itself if the user holds a finger to her lips. A chair that adjusts room lighting.

They are among the many possible applications of Touché, a new sensing technique developed by a team at Disney Research, Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Touché is a form of capacitive touch sensing, the same principle underlying the types of touchscreens used in most smartphones.

But instead of sensing electrical signals at a single frequency, like the typical touchscreen, Touché monitors capacitive signals across a broad range of frequencies.

This Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing (SFCS) makes it possible to not only detect a “touch event,” but to recognize complex configurations of the hand or body that is doing the touching. An object thus could sense how it is being touched, or might sense the body configuration of the person doing the touching.

SFCS is robust and can enhance everyday objects by using just a single sensing electrode. Sometimes, as in the case of a doorknob or other conductive objects, the object itself can serve as a sensor and no modifications are required.

Even the human body or a body of water can be a sensor.

We look forward to the day Touché and Siri get together and make babies.

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  1. bvodesign reblogged this from notational
  2. emperorsilya1 reblogged this from thelearningbrain
  3. jenninsandiego reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  4. son-risa reblogged this from dontforgettodream
  5. catherinepunkcollins reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  6. georgevaldes reblogged this from notational and added:
    DONE.
  7. burofrank reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  8. vitomadness reblogged this from nowintothetardis
  9. resofactor reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  10. philisntcool reblogged this from georgie-chaos
  11. notational reblogged this from thelearningbrain
  12. thelearningbrain reblogged this from futurejournalismproject and added:
    I think this is somewhat remarkable (if it’s for real). futurejournalismproject:
  13. crimsondude reblogged this from futurejournalismproject and added:
    This is really cool. If it doesn’t exist in SR (and it might. I’m focused on solely dragons ATM) then it could with...
  14. dontforgettodream reblogged this from doe-eyed-debtor
  15. yesterdaytomorrowfantasy reblogged this from nowintothetardis and added:
    DISNEY.
  16. nowintothetardis reblogged this from doe-eyed-debtor and added:
    Just going to point out again Disney.
  17. doe-eyed-debtor reblogged this from futurejournalismproject and added:
    Disney Research. Just thought I’d point that out.
  18. newsworks reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  19. perksofbeingaweirdo reblogged this from futurejournalismproject
  20. futurejournalismproject posted this

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