Forever Geek » virtual

Light Touch: Project a touch screen onto any flat surface

Andy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:11:18 +0000

We’ve seen gadgets that can project a keyboard onto a desk and allow users to type on it, but this idea from Light Blue Optics will create an entire touchscreen on any flat surface.

The Light Touch is an interactive projector that creates a 10-inch touch screen and has many application possibilities.

It uses holographic laser projection technology to create a WVGA image even at very short distances, yet the laser is actually safe enough that no damage is done if someone accidentally looks into it.

The infra-red touch sensing system is what creates the virtual touch screen, allowing interactive apps to be developed and offering a decent alternative to installing a physical screen.

The Light Touch runs Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 which means it should be easy to develop standard applications, and its battery lasts up to two hours. It also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in so it will happily run web apps and connect up to other mobile devices.

How do you fancy one of these in your home?

Iomega introduces v.Clone: take your entire PC with you on a hard drive

Andy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:30:51 +0000

Iomega has announced the launch of its new v.Clone software which allows you to clone your PC’s contents onto a hard drive and then use it as a virtual machine on any other PC.

Backing up, travelling with important files on a USB stick or accessing your home PC via the Internet are all possibilities but Iomega’s solution means that you have an exact replica of your primary PC’s contents and can access it from any Windows-based PC with a USB port.

The best features are that no data trail is left on the host PC once you’ve finished using it, it’s password secured and data encrypted, and it seamlessly synchronises with your PC so it’s always up-to-date. It can even be used immediately if there’s an emergency and your real PC dies.

The software will begin shipping on Iomega USB 2.0 hard drives this spring, pricing to be confirmed.

Iomega

Fontplore: amazing interactive table for searching font databases

Andy — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:45:44 +0000

If you work with fonts a lot you’ll know what a hassle it can be to find just the right one.

Enter Fontplore, an interactive application built on a widget-aware table that can be used to search font databases quickly and intuitively.

Moving “navigation” and “action” objects around the table cause things to happen, such as scrolling through, previewing, printing or saving fonts.

Each object has a LED built in which changes color depending on its state.

The whole system is based on the reacTIVision system built by students and staff from Potsdam University, German, and makes use of a lot of open source stuff including MySQL Server, Mathematik, TUIO and PrintPDF.

Visit the web site for a lot more detail.

Via

Wolfenstein 3D on iPhone controlled with virtual joystick prototype

Andy — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:18:39 +0000

Today I received an interesting email from Alex Winston whose company has been developing a virtual joystick application for the iPhone and iPod touch.

It’s a prototype that allows Wolfenstein 3D to be controlled from a second device connected up using a crossover audio cable.

The Wolfenstick runs without having to jailbreak the iPhone and has been developed using the iPhone OS 2.0 AudioToolbox APIs. It shows off what’s possible now, as well as being a taster of some of the cool hardware mods that may be developed and released when iPhone OS 3.0 comes this summer.

Here’s a demo video of the Wolfenstick in action.