Very cool

[Helevitia]

Very nice. The future looks good

[az]

Wombat, yeah, pushbuttons wouldn't be too hard, and in fact, I think VW has licensed this technology for future car touchscreens (so you can feel the buttons and don't have to take your eyes off the street) from some firm. I think they're using some kind of liquid or gel that expands. But rotary knobs? (Oh yes Zokes, I can already see the application )

[DukeP]

Knobs. He said knobs...


Scale it up to, say, lifesize???

~~DukeP~~

[az]

Now you're scaring me. The ordinary rotary knob I see here is at least 1 cm in diameter and 1.5 cm long - how large would you want it to be?

God, now I have "Let's Twist Again" stuck in my head.

[VJ]

I'm still waiting for tactile screens that can produce buttons that can be pressed. Rotary Knobs, dials and throttles would probably be even harder to produce, but a real tactile interface for a computer would be great.

Your wait is almost over:

http://www.immersion.com/industrial/touchscreen/

IMO, it is not a matter of eliminating one or the other. I have a Datahand keyboard for easier typing, and a Kensington trackball. But touchscreens do have their advantages (I first noticed this on my Psion: the screen is very small, so a mouse would be virtually useless). The different input technologies are complementary. You can do stuff with a touchscreen that you can't with other hardware, but same goes for keyboards and mice.


Jörg