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Two-Sided Touch Screen >

A pseudo-transparent screen from Microsoft and Mitsubishi lets people enter data from both sides of a handheld device. >

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Researchers at Microsoft and Mitsubishi are developing a new touch-screen system that lets people type text, click hyperlinks, and navigate maps from both the front and back of a portable device. A semitransparent image of the fingers touching the back of the device is superimposed on the front so that users can see what they're touching. >

Multitouch screens, popularized by gadgets such as PDAs and Apple's iPhone, are proving to be more versatile input devices than keypads. But the more people touch their screens, says > Patrick Baudisch > , a Microsoft researcher involved in the touch-screen project, the more content they cover up. "Touch has certain promise but certain problems," he says. "The smaller the touch screen gets, the bigger your fingers are in proportion ... Multitouch multiplies the promise and multiplies the problems. You can have a whole hand over your PDA screen, and that's a no go." >

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Transparent touch: > Top: An illustration of a future multisurface, multitouch device. Bottom: A portable-device application that rotates, translates, and zooms in on a digital map. Superimposed on the map is an image of the user’s fingers, which are touching the back of the device. >
Credit: Microsoft >

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