AirBar: Brings touch to PCs – works with gloves/paintbrush

I'm sure I'd forget about it them slam shut my laptop…

I've had exactly this idea before, but never pursued it because I couldn't get past the problem of shadows. It looks like this doesn't either. ie, if you are making a vertical pinch gesture and you happen to get it precise enough, it's possible that the top finger will be left in the dark and thus undetectable. Maybe because depth can be sensed, software can compensate.. I still imagine this will be a problem though, as well as resolution

Also, how well will this thing work in daylight and direct sun?

What sort of resolution does it offer?

How well does it handle multi-touch, especially when some touches are obstructed by others?

Does it offer any pseudo-pressure sensitivity options?

Side comment: Excellent use of the .bar domain extension.

Would work well in clean rooms and hospitals. It's hard to find tech that you can install somewhere sterile and keep it sterile. Keyboards - nope, mouse? Hm, they are ok.

We wipe everything down with alcohol wipes, so this bar looks like the business. Especially if you can fit a glass case around it / over it. We could fit them into laminar air flow workstations. Cut some metal, fit some glass parts instant computer aided control. Neat.

Ooooh, here is a photo of a screen inside one of the work stations: http://www.parallabs.com/products/ivf-workstations/ivf-works...

Will keep an eye on this when it is an actual product. Might be fun to see what you can do with one of these when projecting the computer screen. Cheapo interactive whiteboard style.

It seems like most windows laptops have touch built in now though. I had to disable it on the laptop I'm using right now.

This really needs to work, and be successful, and be a thing. In the audio-apps world, touch-based interfaces are encroaching deeply on the WIMP manifesto, and we laptop users suffer from having accessory envy whenever the latest popstar brings their iPad into the booth.

If there is a fast, convenient way to out-do the Magic Leap experience (and that's what this looks to be) then I think someone in AirBar Inc., needs to have an "Audio/Music-Industry Specialist" contact person doing the necessary work to get 100% buy-in from the synth/plugin guys.

Because, this is a unique opportunity, actually.

Reminds me of the digital/interactive whiteboard technology from last decade.

Example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZnJ-mNzLYI

Is it just me, or does the top video stop when the bar is applied to the screen? That's burying the lede :)

I couldn't get the video to play, not sure why, but I think this is the same: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGffKBu9aNs

Looks interesting, but I'd like to try it/read reviews before purchasing

This is really sick, but it seems much more like a precursor technology that would eventually be subsumed into every laptop out there. Even then, is this really worth getting for the few times this would be drastically better over using a keyboard/mouse?

I'd be willing to pre-order, but not without some indication of when it was expected to ship, and not without Mac support as well. :/

All those fingerprints on my monitor that will never wash off... Priceless.

So cool!

Very cool

only 15.6 inch..ugh

Nifty idea, but I imagine it's going to get back to the same problem of putting a touchscreen on Windows to start with: Namely that most of the applications people want to run on Windows (Metro apps excluded) are not optimized for touch. The widgets one would want to use are too small to accurately be clicked on with a finger.