Anyway, I’ve begun transferring some of these files via USB to my laptop, which has been a slow and arduous process thus far. What I do is right-click on the folder, check the size, and see if it will fit into the USB drive or not. Jan Barth and Roman Grasy’s DataBot concept mouse can’t really tell you the size of that file or folder, but what it does is let you feel how huge that folder is by making it harder for you to move the mouse, along with vibration feedback.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

In order to work, the DataBot mouse adds a rolling ball and a servo-motor to a modern optical mouse, which seems sort of like a step backwards.

[via Engadget via Dvice]

The Fling Mini should provide gamers that classic and dependable analog feel when playing games, but just like the Fling, it also blocks a substantial area of the screen. That may be forgivable for the iPad, but on the iPhone and iPod’s smaller screens this drawback might outweigh the joystick’s benefits for many games.

If you think the trade off is worth it, you can pre-order the Fling Mini at Ten One Design’s online shop – $25 (USD) gets you a pair of joysticks. I wonder if Apple will add a rear touch panel like the one on Sony’s NGP to future iOS devices. That way we can use add-ons like the Fling Mini without blocking the screen.

[via Dvice]

Disney is working on a system that will be able to be integrated into your computer chair for gaming and seats at the movie theater. Created by Ali Israr and Ivan Poupyrev at Disney Research Pittsburgh, the system is called the “Tactile Brush” and it has a series of 12 vibrating motors inside. The motors are able to trick the body into thinking it feels certain things like a touch or G-forces.

The team says that the system will even be able to make the person feel like water or rain is running down their back. Talk about bringing some realism to games, let me feel the Gs in a racing game along with a force-feedback system and motion control and I will be a happy camper.

[via New Scientist via Gizmodo]

When the iPhone is placed on top of your palm, an image of a palm (not yours) loads onto the screen, and then you can rub your finger on the touchscreen, tricking your brain into thinking you’re tickling your own palm. In addition, they’ve set up a two-person mode which lets you tickle someone else’s hand from across the room.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While the visual illusion should be enough to trigger the sensation of being tickled in most people, the addition of vibration (currently done via audio, and not the iPhone’s vibration motor) seals the deal.

The whole idea seems completely surperfluous to me, but mabe there’s some sort of remote interaction idea here which would allow couples to feel each other up from afar. Between this, the remote-kissing machine, and advances in teledildonics, pretty soon you’ll never have to be bothered with actually touching anyone again.

[via DigInfo.TV]

The device isn’t an external keyboard or a case with a keyboard inside. It’s a thin and lightweight overlay that clips to the screen of the iPad. The overlay has little windows cut out that fit right over the virtual keys on the on screen keyboard of the iPad. Inside those windows are pieces of a material that allows the use of the keyboard.

The material used is curved slightly so when the user clicks the key the feeling of hitting a real key is conveyed. The idea is that by actually being able to feel the key and feel the click you will be able to touch type on the iPad without having to take another keyboard with you.

The iKeyboard concept was created by Cliff Thier, and is on Kickstarter right now seeking $4,000 to come to reality. As of now, the project has already raised more than half of that goal, so it’s more than likely going to come to fruition. A pledge of $30 or more will get you one of the first iKeyboards to roll off of the assembly line.

The Engrain tactile keyboard was designed and created by Pratt design student Michael Roopenian in order to provide a more natural connection between users with their interfaces. He actually played with other surfaces including stone, sand and some sort of fuzz, but ultimately settled on wood key caps. I have to say he made the right choice.

Assuming that there aren’t any splintery bits on the keys and they’re not too rough, I could totally see myself using one of these. Michael, you should start producing these – I bet you’d sell at least a handful.

[via core77 via Colossal]

Developed by a team from Osaka University, the Paranga is a mechanical device that acts as a controller for an E-book reader, providing readers with the sensation of actually flipping pages. The system can detect how much the book is bent, then page flips are detected using a paper-covered roller. Here’s a video the guys at DigInfo TV shot, showing off the Paranga in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Funny thing is that it’s not accurate enough yet to detect individual page turns, so in the prototype it’s used to just play with a flip-book animation. The concept seems interesting enough, but the fact that any version of such a device would add unnecessary bulk to the svelte E-reader, it’s kind of a non-starter. Perhaps they’ll figure out a way to create some sort of miniature haptic device that feels like turning pages without all the mechanical components, and then they’ll have something. For now, the concept is nothing more than an amusing novelty.

[via YouTube]

Ten One Designs’ Fling is a tactile game controller for the iPad. You simply stick it onto the screen of your iPad using its gentle, removeable suction cups, and your screen instantly spawns a real, honest-to-goodness analog stick.

The clever design is made primarily of transparent, flexible resin, so you can still see through to the screen, except where your thumb rests – and that’s already the case when you play games without such a contraption. Here’s a video clip showing off the Fling in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I wonder if you could use two of these to play games like Geometry Wars Touch. Other than taking up a lot of screen real estate, I can’t see why not. This ingenious little gadget will sell for $24.95 (USD) – including a handy microfiber carrying pouch – when it hits. Ten One will be accepting pre-orders for the Fling starting on January 6th.

Harrison’s concept uses the body to sense touch inputs. When a particular part of the body is tapped, a sensor on the upper arm can detect where exactly the tap originated from, either the fingertips or the forearm. This is done by sensing the vibrations that are generated by each tap.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Once this is paired with a projector, you’ve got a whole new input device: your own body.

Skinput is set to be presented at a conference in April.

[via Core77]

The ingenious design adds tiny little pushable “buttons” that line up perfectly with the keyboard on the screen of the iPhone. They’ve even designed the 4iThumbs to be easily removable when you don’t need to type that much. The video below shows exactly how it’s installed and used.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The 4iThumbs tactile overlay is available here in both landscape ($16.95 USD) and portait ($14.95) versions, depending on your typing preference. They’re also selling a bundle with both versions for $19.95.

iPhone touch typing, here we come!

[via IntoMobile]

These new Tactile Pro 3 keyboards are built from the same technology used in the original Apple Extended and Extended II keyboards, complete with lovely, long-throw, clicky ALPS mechanical switches. While the key switches may be decidedly old school, the design of the Tactile Pro 3 has been updated to be more ergonomically friendly than retro Apple keyboards. It’s got a sleek, curvy form factor, and is built for durability. The keys are each laser etched, and the case is designed to keep crumbs and dirt from getting in-between the keys. And Matias has included a special technology that prevents missed key-presses if you’re a smokin’ fast typist. There’s also a built-in 3 port USB 2.0 hub, and it’s even compatible with PCs if you don’t have a Mac lying around.

While $149.95 (USD) might sound like a lot for a keyboard, it seems like a worthwhile investment if you spend all day sitting at your keyboard like I do, and want to type at the highest speed and accuracy. Want one? The Tactile Pro 3 starts shipping in January 2010, and Matias is accepting pre-orders here.

[thanks for the tip, Kenny P!]

Awesome. It’ll allow blind people to read LOL or BRB. And because they won’t need audio feedback anymore, they could sneakily text or play games on the phone even while pretending to do something else. Seriously though I would love to see this in action; I guess it would look like the phone is alive as the dots pop in and out of its surface. Here’s some more info about the braille phone:

I think computer makers should build on Park’s idea and build giant Braille touchscreens while we’re waiting for bionic eyes to be invented perfected. Check out more pics of the Braille phone at Tuvie.

Carnegie Mellon University grad student Chris Harrison and CS professor Scott Hudson have developed a tactile interface that lets you actually feel and press virtual buttons that emerge from a touchscreen. The prototype uses a combination of rear-projected images, infrared sensors and a layer of flexible latex from which the buttons rise and fall.

A custom cut acrylic layer behind the buttons gives them their shapes, and air is pumped into and out of the chambers behind the buttons to automatically change the button states as the images change.

The system is capable of detecting more than one simultaneous press using readily available infrared multi-touch technology, and can even figure out how hard you’re pressing on the buttons by monitoring air pressure. To see the system in action, check out this video clip:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While the prototype version is clearly not practical or cost-effective for real-world use, the overall concept is really cool, and I’d love to see them figure out a way to miniaturize the technology so it could be crammed into a mobile device some day.

[via Technology Review]

The Das Ultimate Keyboard is completely blank. That’s right, each and every one of its 104 keys (105 in Europe) is devoid of letters, numbers, or special characters of any sort. For those of us who are completely in touch with our touch-typing capabilities, I say, why the heck not?

Your friends and co-workers will certainly think you’re way too cool for them, what with this stealthy black beast on your desktop. Never mind the fact that Das Keyboards are designed to be the best and fastest keyboards on the planet. Featuring German-engineered gold-plated mechanical switches, each key offers up a satisfying tactile and audible “click” when pressed (supposedly reminiscent of the “legendary” IBM model M keyboard).

Also along for the ride is a built-in high-speed USB hub, and a nice long 2-meter (6.6 foot) USB cable, giving you plenty of slack for efficient typing. But if your QWERTY often reads QSFRTG, you can go for the Das Professional – which still has all its letters – but what are you, some sort of wimp?

Das Ultimate and Professional keyboards normally retail for $129, but if you pre-order now you can grab one for just $99. (They’re supposed to be released on 7/14, so you better get a move on!)

[via Gear Diary]

Developed by researchers at the Design Media Lab at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the device uses a dot-matrix array of solenoids attached to a flexible Spandex skin. When sent the proper signals, the solenoids move in and out to create characters which rise and fall from the surface.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I’m not sure of the real world applications for this display technology, but it’s definitely unlike anything I’ve seen before. Perhaps it would be useful for creating braille displays for the visually impaired, or maybe just for cool wall clocks, like the example in the video clip.

My Touch Keys is a overlay that sits on your iPhone’s screen and has cutouts which line up with the location of the on-screen keyboard (portrait mode only). The static-cling sheets use their subtle divots to give you feedback on the location of the keys, even if you’re not looking at the screen.

I’d be concerned that the ridges on the film might get in the way of other, non-keyboarding activities, but the makers claim that you can still use the screen without interference. At just $7.99 a pair (including shipping), it’s not too much of a gamble, so if you have any desire to improve your iPhone typing accuracy and speed, you can grab one here.

[via Phonemag via Ubergizmo]

The Samsung SCH-W559 phone provides users with a vibration that approximates the sensation of a key click when they interact with the phone’s touchscreen. The QVGA color touchscreen display also supports handwriting recognition. The quad-band phone also features typical media phone capabilities including a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth and audio/video playback. As the phone is currently not available outside of Asia, I’m hoping this feature will find its way into some products stateside.

[via NewLaunches]