Nokia Builds a Touchscreen Display Made of Ice 66
hasanabbas1987 writes "Touchscreens have been with us for quite some time now and we have seen all kinds of them: resistive touch, capacitive, multi-touch, etc. However, Nokia's research lab in Tampere, Finland has developed a rather unique kind of touchscreen: a touchscreen made of ice. Well, to be honest, it's not really a touchscreen for everyday use, nor is it very portable, as the rig includes a projector and some infrared cameras (PDF) which are connected to a computer, but after all it's a touchscreen made out of ice and that is quite remarkable. Nokia says this 'playful experiment' reveals that interactive touch displays can be built anywhere, and we are very sure that Mr. Freeze from Batman will be highly interested in the project."
After what break? (Score:5, Informative)
Wow, nice straight copy and paste job of the blog post there...
Direct link to article (Score:4, Informative)
For anyone who doesn't feel like clicking through the slow copy-and-paste blog to get to the actual NewScientist article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827875.800-worlds-first-ice-touchscreen-virtually-burns.html
Sorry, forgot /. doesn't auto-link http:// (NT) (Score:2)
Nokia finally listened (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe there IS a use for it... (Score:2, Interesting)
Be kind of interesting if they made this for that "Ice Hotel" that gets built every so often.
Re:Maybe there IS a use for it... (Score:5, Interesting)
"Every so often"? I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably built regularly around once a year. Usually around the same time to boot.
Re:Maybe there IS a use for it... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
It seems the Ice Hotel is made more out of snow, similar to this [wikipedia.org] - how does it manage to pass building regulations?! ;)
Either way, it nicely adds to the already "fun" ;) neighborhood - together with space academic departments, an European spaceport that's actually in Europe or, in the future, Spaceport Sweden... (could be interesting during arctic night / maybe even inside an aurora) ...NVM moving the town (even if buildings being simply torn down seems to be ignoring great opportunity ;) )
Re:Maybe there IS a use for it... (Score:4, Funny)
...around once a year. Usually around the same time to boot.
Man, they need to work on those init scripts. Get some services starting in parallel.....
Every Year (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well, it looks like we have a new toy for those spy shows. It'd be kinda funny to see images on an ice cube in s cocktail, with a tongue touch interface. Another reason to hire spies with long tongues...
But will they be able to power it all from a slice of lemon? Toothpick WiFi antenna... Olive processor.
Cool (Score:2)
It would work well here in Minnesota durring the 5 months of winter
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It would work well here in Minnesota durring the 5 months of winter
No No No! It's infrared! It would melt everything. Besides, it would likely exacerbate Global Warming.
Re:Cool (Score:5, Funny)
Cool
Icy what you did there.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Well, what are your remedies? You going to give him the cold shoulder?
Just to clarify (Score:4, Informative)
It's not really a "touch screen" like on an iPad et al, it's really a "touch surface" like on the Microsoft Surface [wikipedia.org].
Styluses (Score:1)
cool (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Well, that's because you are not apple fanboi.. They are seen licking their own, er, devices...
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You realize it still hurts like hell right? Speaking from personal experience, I can assure you that "don't lick metal poles during winter" is very sound advice.
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What I want to know - why would anybody lick metal poles at any time of the year?
no fingerprints? (Score:1)
Limited applications? (Score:2)
Maybe David Blaine will have one next time he stands outside in a block of ice?
More details (Score:5, Informative)
That work was just published at the ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces conference, so there is a rather more coherent explanation (and another video) at:
http://www.dfki.de/its2010/papers/sp199.html [www.dfki.de]
(Not affiliated with either group, but ITS was a lot of fun)
Suitable for cold climates, I'm sure. (Score:2)
Do you think the elves who work for Santa Claus at the North Pole would be interested in this?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Do you think the elves who work for Santa Claus at the North Pole would be interested in this?
All the elves at this year's New Elves Workshop got icePods.
Re: (Score:2)
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With the amount of power the lamps in projectors take, I think you could pretty easily heat a normal display to keep it operational.
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The location is actually not North Pole, but some place in the Lapland region of...Finland. Only fitting / I'm sure there's more to the story with this touchscreen.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Blame the idiotic coverage rather than the folks building the wall. They're well aware it was just a cool (sorry) art piece. And shared their experiences for anyone who wants to build or build on the design.
What about frosted glass? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Fun :)
And shared experience, so someone else will have a little less tinkering to do when they look at this and go "Hey, I wonder if I could..."
actually (Score:1)
what the hell does "after the break" mean? (Score:1)
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Don't use your tongue... (Score:4, Funny)
...gives "Sticky Keys" new meaning...
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That's ice and all, but... (Score:5, Funny)
I give it a couple of months before it becomes vaporware.
As long as it's not... (Score:2)
Nerd Up (Score:2)
I think Superman may have prior art.
Know your audience (Score:2)
"from batman" was unnecessary. All the geeks here know who Mr. Freeze is.
Re: (Score:2)
Governor of California, right?
The end of the video... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, cause Finns know nothing about cold weather what with only a quarter of the country inside the Arctic circle.
We Eskimos have always been forgotten... (Score:1)
Mr. Freeze? (Score:2)
Forget about Mr. Freeze, this is the kind of technology that is welcomed by all Canadians!
Now we just need ice (Score:1)
Ice that doesn't melt at room temperature.
Otherwise, this product could have a very short lifetime after purchase.....
Re: (Score:2)
Be careful what you wish for... [wikipedia.org] (that said, some form of pykrete based on translucent fibers could largely do the trick, especially for various values of "room temperature")
That's nothing, 3-D camera made of ice (Score:1)
Superman needs this... (Score:1)
leanspa (Score:1)
Hand Zambonis (Score:2)
Global Warming? (Score:1)
Now if we only knew what they were made of! (Score:2)
I've only read the headline, but it left me wondering: "What on Earth are these things made of?"
It's too bad the headline doesn't provide any information at all about the composition of these displays. For some reason the /. editors have opted for some non-geeky marketing-speak that completely ignores the facts and instead goes for... well, something, I guess. I don't know what.
I guess they think people here are dumb enough to go read a summary with a deliberately misleading headline, and then go and rea