BOFFINS IN THE BACK ROOMS of New York University have developed an inexpensive pressure-sensitive pad that creates images of objects that are in contact with it.
It means that it will be possible to use what ever you like to touch the screen and “Inexpensive Multi-Touch Pressure Acquisition Devices (IMPAD)”, can be made paper thin for portable devices.
Not only that it can scale up to cover a table or wall.
According to Technology Review, which for some reason cannot resist telling the world how the IPhone works in the story, the boffins’ pressure-sensitive touch pad can see how hard a person presses. So far it is so sensitive that it can be used for virtual sculpting and painting and for a simulated mouse with left clicks, right clicks, and drags, as well as for musical instruments like a piano keyboard.
The hardware consists of two plastic sheets, about 8 inches by 10 inches, each with parallel lines of electrodes, spaced a quarter inch apart. The sheets are arranged so that the electrodes cross, creating a grid which means that each intersection is essentially a pressure sensor.
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