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Microsoft to Acquire Multi-Touch Pioneer Perceptive Pixel

bungiefan89 said:
I always hated those big multi-touch surfaces they use on CNN. Watching the news anchors use them, it was like they were just subtly advertising for tablet devices instead of just presenting the news.
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Or is it a marketing ploy to gain more viewers? If they look all high-tech and fancy, maybe more people will watch their network...:rolleyes:
 
Ever see the craptacular response these panels have. They "swipe" almost as bad as an Android phone.
 
bungiefan89 said:
I always hated those big multi-touch surfaces they use on CNN. Watching the news anchors use them, it was like they were just subtly advertising for tablet devices instead of just presenting the news.
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I guess that's why Jeff Han called his company perceptive pixel.

From my perception I've always thought the guys at CNN were just playing with some cool new stuff.
 
Apple won't let this stand, 30" iMaxipad incoming within the year. Yep you read it here first folks :cool:
 
nevir said:
How is a business started in 2006 even remotely a pioneer in a technology that's been around for well over a decade?
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A decade? Multi-touch is over thirty years old. It appeared even before the first Mac was released.

Fresh Pie said:
I remember laughing out loud while watching the part of the original Surface's introduction video that mentioned the use of hundreds of cameras to capture motion of multiple fingers. It just seemed like the least efficient approach to multitouch.
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Microsoft Surface (now PixelSense) is able to recognise objects placed on the surface of the table, something that isn't possible using a capacitive screen and at the time of the release was only achievable by using cameras. However the cameras were now replaced by a technology developed by Samsung that still allows to detect objects.

Actually one of the first multi-touch prototypes developed in 1982 used cameras to detect movement.

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ILikeTurtles said:
Ever see the craptacular response these panels have. They "swipe" almost as bad as an Android phone.
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Have you touched an Android phone that came out during the last three years?
 
I think the question need to be asked:

How will multitouch screens benefit on screen porn :D
 
rendevouspoo said:
I wonder how different this post would have been if the emblem on that device in the picture was an apple with a bite taken out.
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When Apple does something bonehead their supporters are their worst critics too. They have been careful to no screw up lately.
 
Headline: Microsoft does away with remote control for TV!!

Ballmer sells it as "cutting edge" and "innovative"... you no longer need a remote... now you can just get up off your couch and walk across your room and swipe your fingers across the screen to change the channels... You will never need another remote again!!!!!

Ballmer is quoted as saying that this is the "most innovative piece of technology to come out of Microsoft in 30 years"...
 
Peace said:
Jeff Han worked mostly on projector based input output while fingerworks was working on capacitive touch surfaces.
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This is correct. Fingerworks did some very extensive fingertip motion research. Perceptive Pixel, to me, was more about presenting and marketing fairly well known gestures in a very nice way.

Perceptive Pixel, btw, is the reason why Apple failed to get a trademark on "Multi-Touch". They almost got it, but then Jeff Han found out and wrote an 80 page challenge to the USPTO explaining why the term was already generic.

A pretty good timeline of multi-touch can be found in graphic below taken from a rather large and interesting presentation.

(Click on the thumbnail below to see full size.)
 

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Giant touch screen panels on CNN

Great... More technology for the technologically illiterate news anchors. Doh! :rolleyes:
 
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Interesting Acquisition

But, as we all know from multiple previous acquisitions....what is MS gonna DO with it???

They don't have a good track record with their acquisitions lately.

But as much as I hate to say it, as a consumer I need a healthy MS to keep Apple honest and to fight off the likes of Google and Facebook (the "ad driven" tech companies...)
 
What really impressed me about Han's work and the MS Surface is that they were made for collaborative computing. In other words, more than one person can work at the same screen simultaneously. Even though the iPad has multi-touch, it's still a single-person computing device (outside of a couple of multi-player games).
 
I think done properly this could be interesting technology. Unfortunately my faith in Microsoft doing it properly is not very high.
 
w00master said:
You do know that Jeff Han is one of the pioneers of multi-touch.. Don't you?

Or do are one of those who thinks that Apple has invented everything?

w00master
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Apple really did invent everything. :D Including the kitchen sink, and Steve Jobs later made a deal with the family of John Crapper to purchase the patents for flushing fecal matter down the drain.
 
AidenShaw said:
...the timeline starts in 1982, and Apple doesn't appear until more than ¾ of the timeline is over.
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I'm assuming that's why kdarling posted it. ;). Though I'm curious to know who ever suggested that Apple invented multi touch technology? :confused:
 
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