Interfaces

This Emerging Tech Roland Piquepaille article reports the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) will develop the OmegaTable, a multi-sensory touch tabletop for interactive, visual data exploration in 2D and autostereoscopic 3D. From the article: "After the LambdaTable unveiled in 2007, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) will develop the OmegaTable, a new virtual reality display. It will be a modular, multi-sensory touch tabletop for interactive, visual data exploration in 2D and autostereoscopic 3D (3D without special glasses). EVL received a $450K grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop the device. The project will start in September 2008 for a 3-year duration.

This ScienceDaily article takes a look at a PhD thesis presented at the University of the Basque Country which puts forward the use of avatars or virtual Internet personages as an efficient form of non-verbal communication, principally focusing on emotional aspects. From the article: "Scientists have been working for decades so that the interaction between people and computers be more natural and intuitive. In fact, a great part of the success or failure of a computer application depends on the user interface. The way in which we communicate with the operating system, for example, has progressed a lot from the time when it was required to write complicated lines of commands on a black and white screen to those with much more intuitive windows.

This NewScientistTech article reports Erik Ramsey who is almost totally paralysed is learning to talk again with the help of an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex. You may also check the video on YouTube. From the article: "Nine years ago, a brain-stem stroke left Erik Ramsey almost totally paralysed, but with his mental faculties otherwise intact. Today he is learning to talk again – although so far he can only manage basic vowel sounds.

In 2004, Ramsey had an electrode implanted in his speech-motor cortex by Philip Kennedy's team at Neural Signals, a company based in Duluth, Georgia, US, who hoped the signal from Ramsey's cortex could be used to restore his speech.

This NewScientistTech article reports a wireless antenna that channels signals along human skin, developed at Queen's University Belfast, could broadcast signals over your body to connect up medical implants or portable gadgets. From the article: "The new power-efficient approach could make more of established medical devices like pacemakers or help future implants distributed around the body work together.

Just one of the small hockey-puck-like antennas developed at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, would be able to connect to gadgets anywhere else on the body, says William Scanlon who made the design with colleague Gareth Conway.

This NewScientistTech article reports a device that relays a person's body movements to an array of electrodes on their tongue, developed at TIMC lab, could help people with balance problems recover their poise, or wheelchair users avoid pressure sores. From the article: "The wireless "tongue display" being used by French researchers is worn in the mouth like an orthodontic retainer. A matrix of 36 electrodes on the underside transmits electrical impulses to the tongue.

"The sensation is a kind of 'ticklish' feeling," says Yohan Payan, a researcher at the TIMC lab near Grenoble, France.

This NewScientistTech article reports a software developed in the US can perceive moving images in much the same way a cat's brain does. From the article: "The researchers hope the work will one day lead to implants that make it possible for people to see without an optic nerve.

Researchers at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco, were motivated by the fact that, until now, models of the way brains respond to visual input used simple images like dots, bars and grids. They are typically unable to cope with the complex scenes a human would usually see.

This New Scientist Technology Blog post reports Christian Moore have developed an open-source framework (so-called Lux) which brings full multitouch interaction to Apple's OSX operating system. From the article: "Here's a video that's been doing the rounds on the web recently. Lux is an open-source framework developed by Christian Moore that brings full multitouch interaction to Apple's OSX operating system.

This Physorg article reports has designed a baseball cap which detects and analyzes the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from your brain. From the article: "It looks like an ordinary baseball cap. But when you put it on, the cap detects and analyzes the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from your brain. It can even tell you if you’re getting too sleepy when driving based on your brain wave patterns. Similar technology could also allow you to control home electronics such as TVs, computers, and air conditioners, all by just thinking about them.

This EETimes article reports scientists of the Aachen university clinic and the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits have developed a retina implant that wirelessly receives optical signals from the outside. From the article: "The development aims at a technology to restore eyesight for blind persons.

Worldwide, about 3 million persons suffer from Retina Pigmentosa, an eye disease which slowly leads to complete blindness. While retina cells die off, some nerve cells in many cases remain intact. These cells can be stimulated through technical seeing aids such as retina implants. However, power supply and signal transmission through wires incorporate significant hurdles for the patient as well as for designers.

This NewScientistTech article reports a neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time. From the article: "With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.