speed usb smart pad supports multitouch gestures: let your fingers do the zoomin’ and navigatin’

October 19th, 2009 comments stumble it! digg it! by: technabob

Yeah, yeah, Apple is probably going to announce some sort of wondrous new multitouch input peripherals when it makes its rumored product announcements this week, but does that mean that Windows users can’t have at least a little multitouch lovin’ in the mean time? I don’t think so.

speed_usb_multitouch_pad

With this nifty Smart Pad peripheral from Speed, you can add not only an external numeric keypad to your laptop or desktop, but one that works as a true multitouch input device. The compact Smart Pad plugs into any available USB port, and ships with software which lets you start using multitouch gestures to control window movement, mouse buttons, image zooming, scrolling, and other interactions with your computer. The touchpad can support 1, 2 and 3-finger gestures, many of which work with all programs.

speed_touch_pad

There are also a number of specialized gestures that work with popular programs like the MS Office suite and Adobe Acrobat. No word on whether or not there’s any multitouch drawing apps that’ll work with the Smart Pad, but I’m hoping that somebody will hack one together since the hardware could certainly support it.

Just keep in mind that these early drivers pictured below are in Korean, but I’m hopeful the final version ships with English software.

smart_pad_software

The Smart Pad’s specs say it works with Windows XP/Vista, though, so I’m not sure if there are any compatibility issues with Windows 7, which has native multitouch support. The device ships this November and is available for pre-order over at Brando for $40 (USD).

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