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Can't Touch This - Jeff Han - Touch Screen

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Saved by 5 people (1 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-02-14


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He conjured up a lava lamp and sculpted floating blobs that changed color and shape based on how hard he pressed. ("Google should have something like this in their lobby," he joked.)

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he rejects the idea that "we are going to introduce a whole new generation of people to computing with the standard keyboard, mouse, and Windows pointer interface."

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"There is no reason in this day and age that we should be conforming to a physical device," he said. "These interfaces should start conforming to us."

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In this Googly age, it only takes a random genius or two to conceive of a technology so powerful that it can plow under the landscape and remake it in its own image. People are already betting that Jeff Han is one of them.

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He was 12 when he built his first laser.

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Han skipped out on his senior year without graduating to join a startup that bought a videoconferencing technology he developed while a student. A decade later, he's poised to change the face of computing.

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Han's touch display, by contrast, redefines the way commands are given to a computer: It uses both movement and pressure--from multiple inputs, whether 2 fingers or 20--to convey information to the silicon brain under the display.

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"Touch is one of the most intuitive things in the world," Han says. "Instead of being one step removed, like you are with a mouse and keyboard, you have direct manipulation. It's a completely natural reaction--to see an object and want to touch it."

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running them on a standard Microsoft Windows operating system

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"When unexpected uses emerge that no one ever thought of, that's when it gets exciting and takes off," > says Don Norman, a professor at Northwestern University and author of Emotional Design.

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Meanwhile, wherever touch-screen technology leads, Han will face stiff competition. Microsoft has been working on its own version, TouchLight, which offers echoes of the Spielberg sci-fi flick Minority Report. GE (NYSE:GE) Healthcare, which manufactures MRI machines, is using TouchLight, licensed from Eon Reality, for 3-D imaging: Surgeons can swipe their hands across the screen and interact with an MRI of a brain, peel away sections, and look inside for tumors (retail price: $50,675).

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What's more, with the cost of cameras and screens plummeting, it is inevitable that interactive displays will be built into walls and in stores, in schools, on subways, maybe in taxicabs. In fact, a screen could be as thin as a slice of wallpaper, yet durable enough to handle the most rambunctious user.

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Not everyone is sold on Han's idea. Ben Shneiderman, a computer science professor at the University of Maryland and a founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, calls Han a "great showman" who has "opened the door to exciting possibilities." But he doesn't think Han's technology would be suitable for a large-scale consumer product, nor as useful as a mouse on a large display. If you are standing in front of the screen, Shneiderman wonders, how would people behind you be able to see what you're doing?

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Han is explaining why he formed Perceptive Pixel. "I want to create an environment where I can create technology, get it into the hands of someone to market it, and move on to other technologies so I can keep innovating," he says. "I want to be a serial entrepreneur: Incubate an idea, get it to a good state, and make that an enabler to get to the next state. It's every researcher's fantasy."

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