A new touchscreen sensor uses sound to distinguish between the tap of a fingertip, finger pad, fingernail, and knuckle. By taking greater advantage of the finger’s anatomy and dexterity, TapSense could change the way smartphone and tablet computer owners control their touchscreens.
While typing on a virtual keyboard, for instance, users might capitalize letters simply by tapping with a fingernail instead of a finger tip, or might switch to numerals by using the pad of a finger, rather than toggling to a different set of keys.
For those of you who find the iPad too small—way too small—the Padzilla might be the iPad case of your dreams.
The device by Crunchy Logistics transforms your iPad into a ginormous 70″ touch screen, roughly the size of a living room coffee table. A screen like the one in the video below will put you back about $30,000 or $40,000, but at least you’ll have a huge iPad. And a place to put your drinks, too.
To call it a case is a bit of a stretch: you’re not putting the Padzilla on your iOS device so much as you’re mounting your iOS device inside the Padzilla. The name is pretty apt, for sure: the Padzillas are custom made, and assuming you’ve got the green for it, they come in sizes as large as 150″ diagonal. To give you an idea of scale, the model demoed in the video below comes in at a slightly more reasonable 70″ diagonal.
The Padzilla is a purely plug-and-play solution to boot; the iDevices don’t need to be jailbroken, but anything older than the iPhone 3GS isn’t supported. If playing Angry Birds and its ilk get old, feel free to connect your choice of game consoles or computers into the display too.
While I’m sure the Padzilla has some practical uses (they’d give your local news station a bit of pizazz, for one), the wow factor alone is enough to make it tempting. Better start saving your pennies now!
Ryan Pereira 