The Year in Computing - Technology Review

The Year in Computing

[Interesting Artcile on computing - By Kate Greene, Technology Review]

Computer interfaces, wireless devices, memory, and microprocessors were all hot topics in 2008.

By Kate Greene

Tiny touch: A device called nanoTouch has a touch-sensitive back to make it easier to view the front-side display. Here, a credit-card-size gadget shows an image of a person’s finger on the back to help him move a cursor around the screen. Credit: Patrick Baudisch

Smart Screens
Thanks to renewed interest in hands-on computing, researchers have continued to push the boundaries of displays and interfaces. This year, researchers at Microsoft demoed a back-of-the-screen touch pad, and a startup based in New York called Perceptive Pixel came up with an intuitive way of sliding an on-screen object underneath another based on the touch force. (See "What's Next for Computer Interfaces?") Touch screens came down in cost, becoming available to the average hacker. Engineers at Nordt, a research studio based in New York, introduced a product called TouchKit, which lets anyone make and modify his or her own touch-screen table for less than $1,000. (See "Open-Source, Multitouch Display.") And Microsoft researchers demonstrated an easy, cheap way to turn a normal display into a multitouch surface. (See "A Low-Cost Multitouch Screen.") Taking things one step further, Samsung partnered with software provider Reactrix to entirely remove the need for touch with a gesture-based interface: a screen that incorporates computer vision software to "see" the hand movements of people standing in front of it. (See "A Display That Tracks Your Movements.")

More here - Click here

Source: Technology Review