"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back - Gizmodo Comments

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

jackfrost132 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:36:34 EDT

It's a an interesting concept and the hardware is simple enough, obviously they can beef up the power. There would be a definite learning curve but the advantage of 8 fingers to 2 thumbs is fairly apparent. Sooo I suspect microsoft will do a lackluster job on the O/S, the device of course will be hacked. Alternatives will come, some will install them, And shortly after it's launch people will be running around with ubuntu on their mobile microsoft fatty finger accommodating device. Perhaps even Ubuntu Mobile? Who knows, maybe microsoft will make a decent O/S, they do occasionally?..

jackfrost132

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

tidybowl — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:16:17 EDT

I'm just trying to figure out how seeing the shadows on your fingers through the tanslucent screen is less distracting than your big fat fingers in front of it.

On top of that - depending upon how you point and touch with your finger - you would cover less screen real estate than you would holding the device with your hands and doing finger gestures on the back of it.

tidybowl

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Azndude51 — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:13:59 EDT

I think this is a great conect but I don't know why so many of you are making such a big deal about the camera. Obviously, when the technology gets further along, they will be able to get rid of it or move the camera onto the actual device.

Azndude51

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

aznyellojersey — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:42:08 EDT

although there are some drawbacks to this, i noted some pretty cool possibilities. first, the main problem with this design (camera aside) is the fact that your fingers have to hover over the back screen. use apple's touch and pressure sensitive panels and voila, you've an answer: only respond to pressure and touch.
second, as others have said, moving your wrists around is more than a small problem. integrate real-life physics into the programming so that you can "throw" images and pieces across the screen instead of handing them off. kinda like apple's flick-scrolling.
finally, someone needs to fix that typing. i can't type keyboard-style on a non-keyboard arrangement. or give it better ergonomics. maybe.

aznyellojersey

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

kevio — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:27:37 EDT

So let's see. Instead of having your finger occlude the view you have a big shadow. What's the difference? Plus you would have to relearn a new keyboard layout. I love my iPod Touch. The only thing I would like better is a bigger screen.

kevio

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

gizmodohomepage — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:10:15 EDT

Sweet, I've always wanted monochromatic bitmapped fingers at 2 FPS.

gizmodohomepage

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

d_saum — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:08:39 EDT

nope... sorry... not seeing it. This is not a natural position for your hands while typing. Also, any sort of latency would aggravate people. I think the future of mobile computing will be augmented reality. Until that gets ironed out and becomes inexpensive, I think touchscreen, multitouch, whatever is going to be the dominant interface.

d_saum

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

getgreg — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:55:43 EDT

My favorite thing about this demo is that it uses a Fingerworks iGesture pad for multi-touch input. And while there's no definitive word, Fingerworks and all it's IP was most likely bought by Apple a few years go.

getgreg

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

car47 — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:22:03 EDT

@RIDERED - I totally agree; I think this would be really interesting technology for something like a tablet which you'd hold with 2 hands, but for something like a cellphone or ipod or any other 1 hand device; seems like it wouldn't work at all.

While watching this I really thought it was an interesting, viable concept - but after thinking about it a little, I don't see it getting into the mainstream. Not because of the backtouching, but because people just don't like to carry around big ass pieces of hardware and use them "mobilely". Tablet PCs aren't selling well, and if you're not using it in a mobile context, you'll be putting it down on a desk, in which case you want a laptop rather than something you need to pick up to operate.

car47

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

baltwade — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:20:31 EDT

MMEISTER said:

Just how many things do you currently operate from behind in today's world.

OH Come On People!!! Nobody's going to comment on this? NOBODY?? OK I'll get it started with:
1) Your Momma
2) Your Sister

baltwade

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

med — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:12:03 EDT

Translucent, guys... translucent.
not transparent.

med

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

ridered — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:32:06 EDT

I would be a pretty cool device for use with two hands and pretty easy to get used. However for use with one hand it would be utterly worthless.

ridered

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

greyer — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:27:39 EDT

You get crap positioning control with your hands that way; it's easy to move your fingers in and out but not nearly as comfortable moving them up and down. Unless you rock your wrists back and forth you end up with horizontal bands on the screen that are hard to access. And rocking your wrists means you loosen your grip on the thing. You'd drop this all the time. Not to mention that while pushing is simple enough, dragging is really, really clumsy. Just use a stylus.

greyer

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

orionburch — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:44:10 EDT

i can't watch them open and close their hands behind this things without seeing it. Goatsee. This has the goatsee curse.

orionburch

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Bokusatsu_Tenshi — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:18:31 EDT

Interesting!
A relief for wrist pains also... you can use your fingers from both hands while still holding the device.
I like it.

Learning curve might be a little steep, but still worth it.

The camera, like the guy said on the video, could be replaced for other stuff. This is only a prototype. Most prototypes for touchscreen devices begins with motion sensing cameras, as they are cheaper.

Maybe something more interesting would be a device that had multitouch abilities in both faces.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

frigg — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:12:46 EDT

Typing behind the screen instead of in front of it would be a lot more intuitive if the users dangled upside down from their ceiling while typing.

Alternatively, the system could be made even more intuitive by requiring users to place their fingers directly onto their eyeballs.

Anyway, whoever said the iPhone had a 5 year lead over its competitors surely hadn't seen the blueprints for this revolutionary new gadget!

frigg

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Mio — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:52:24 EDT

Obviously no system would ever be released that used the technology used in this prototype: a camera.

It's just an experiment in device interaction, and it's through things like this that we come up with very clever and easy to use methods of interacting with technology. If, for instance, this kind of device interaction proved to be very functional and easy to use in this unwieldly prototype, then obviously money should be poured into a way to do it without the camera. But how can you judge something that's obviously a pretty radical leap into untested UI fields without having tried it? You can't.

Mio

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Zenbrane — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:03:03 EDT

This is really cool, but I don't really believe there's a need for it. Out vision system is designed to deal with occlusion. Never while using a touch screen have I said to myself "omg, I can't see anything". I suppose it will be useful for computer on the go, but who can walk and control ten tough points at the same time?

Zenbrane

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Fuzzba11 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:57:03 EDT

Doesn't look that great, even if they get rid of the camera and the annoying framerate I don't think touching from the back is very intuitive.

Fuzzba11

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Juan_Francisco — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:54:20 EDT

Is this what you call "put I-phone to shame?" This artefact reminds me the 50's - 60' future devices used by the "Supe Heros" or the first versions of Microsoft "windows" compared with the Mac.

Good look next time.

Juan_Francisco

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Y2KGTP — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:47:53 EDT

Yet another device to give you carpal tunnel....

Y2KGTP

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Marty_MacFly — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:45:55 EDT

Why do Microsoft's touchscreen solutions all involve some type of jerry rigged camera system?

Marty_MacFly

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

jcy — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:42:52 EDT

looking at this stupid invention gave me horrible flashbacks to goatse.cx

jcy

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

DestroyerMTL — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:37:05 EDT

A redesign of the typical QWERTY keyboard would be fantastically suited to this interface. Am I the only one who thinks this actually has potential? Sure old people won't be able to even learn to use it but I think it has real promise.

DestroyerMTL

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Jad35 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:32:10 EDT

yea that does actually look pretty stupid... i didnt realize there was anything wrong with the touch screens today. i guess unless your fat but who cares about fat people anyway.

Jad35

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

redclear55 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:31:08 EDT

how is this better than speech-to-text technology? i know it's still pretty rough, but the advantages outweigh the complications that a dual sided touch-screen device might present. given time, which would prove better (and more marketable). you gotta remember that you need to sell these things.

redclear55

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

frigg — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:29:52 EDT

That's dumb not because the camera's sticking out (obviously they can get rid of that), it's dumb because it's dumb!

The narration is as boring as the device. Too much is made of "occlusion" as if the temporary occlusion of images through standard multitouch on the front of a device justifies this invention. In other words, moving your fat fingers out of the way to see the screen on the front is somehow such a bother that it's better to stroke it from behind. Dumb.

frigg

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

erockO — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:29:17 EDT

@drtaylor: agree. with something a cool device like this coupled with an apple interface would make for a pretty useful piece of technology. I don't know what it could be used for but I'm sure there are boatloads of ideas.

erockO

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

drtaylor — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:25:27 EDT

@ChopSue-Me: the camera was only for the proof of concept, they stated that in the clip that something in the body of the device would do it.

@MMEISTER:And it is counter intuitive but we did not always have a nice pointy mouse to select stuff on the screen. People got over using soapbars to draw. I think the challenge here is improving the input on a hand held device. One or two thumbs is just not going to enough at some point.

drtaylor

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

mmeister — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:02:28 EDT

Wow.. totally and completely counter intuitive. Just how many things do you currently operate from behind in today's world.

Not computer-related things, just every day things. I can't think of one. It is counter to everything people do.

I'm all for trying to be innovative, but, IMHO, this ain't gonna hold up under real usability.

mmeister

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Foxbat2 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:59:21 EDT

@egyptiansushi: oh...thanks EGYPTIANSUSHI.

Foxbat2

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

egyptiansushi — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:53:54 EDT

@Foxbat2: It's a flash video.

egyptiansushi

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

ChopSue-Me — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:47:31 EDT

That's just dumb...who wants a camera sticking out the back of their device???

Also, everything is done sort of backwards from the back. Your brain has to translate everything backwards. Imagine trying to write out a word from the back and having to trace out letters inversly...Not very easy!

ChopSue-Me

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

Foxbat2 — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:45:32 EDT

Well......I could comment if I could see the pic! Do I need some sort of special download to view this pic?

Foxbat2

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

92BuickLeSabre — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:45:07 EDT

I just wanted to see him make Abraham Lincoln with the shadows.

92BuickLeSabre

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

angryhorsedojo — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:43:54 EDT

Sorry, I just don't get the appeal. Seems ass backwards to me. I don't have an iPhone, but are people really having that many problems with the touch screen?

angryhorsedojo

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

JustEaton — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:30:31 EDT

Wow, that might actually be usable, and look decent... in 2-3 more years.
Talks most, says least = Microsoft

JustEaton

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

tensenki — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:30:01 EDT

Yes, I might think that this was revolutionary if I was trying to pat myself on the back by sticking my hand up my own arse. Having a webcam sticking out a half foot out the back obviously draws out the touch deficiencies in the iPhone or whatever crack apple is peddling these days.
I think the point is if you were to compare the two, you should be condemned for being criminally retarded. One is a product produced by the millions, and the second is a fucktard that thinks that you can fit a webcam attached by a half foot pole down your pants.
I suppose that if you can I should feel bad.

tensenki

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

cosmicrob — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:21:47 EDT

Boy. If only Apple had thought of this...

[gizmodo.com]

... and gizmodo read their own articles.

cosmicrob

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

pmx — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:21:02 EDT

Really? Check this: [gizmodo.com]

pmx

"Transparent" Touchscreen: LCD the Front, Fingers in the Back

daftrok — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:13:14 EDT

Now THATS an invention.

daftrok