When in comes to touchscreen technology, muli-touch, mutli-gesture movements are not limited to tablets and iPhones. Just this month, CNET’s Martin LaMonica reported that researched at Disney and Carnegie Mellon have successfully integrated touchscreen technology into ordinary objects, like doorknobs.
Researchers are putting capacitive touchscreen technology into common household items, such as doorknobs.
The researchers have embedded the same capacitive touchscreen technology found in Apple products, and Android smartphones, into common household objects like couches, tables and doorknobs to create a multi-use system. The objects interpret gestures such as pinching and grasping and react in different ways. For instance, if you turned a doorknob one way it would lock the door, and if you turned it the other way it would unlock. Similarly, you could plop down on the couch (which would recognize your body’s presence) and the TV would turn on.
Touchscreen technology is really beginning to permeate many facets of life, not just our cellular phones. There are touchscreen painting programs like this one from Cortel, touchscreen cameras and touchscreen home appliances.
It may sound a little bit like sci-fi, but it’s not going to be long until everything we do involves the intuitive touch and gesturing. Shopping, opening the car door, locking your house, setting your alarm clock. The world will become sensitive to our bio-electricity and touch.