Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

Well this is interesting. If anyone remembers that resistive display technology that was able to detect multiple input points as well as the pressure applied to those points, this looks like very similar tech. In fact, I would question whether Nokia is developing the interface for that very display in order to incorporate it into their next generation of cellphones!

The idea is fairly simple: instead of just identifying multiple points, have the device identify the pressure which is being applied to each one. This could allow for more realistic game play, such as playing musical instruments, as well as I’m sure that some more practical applications will be out there.

This of course is not the first time that tech like this has been developed. Some companies use the surface area being touched at a single point in order to identify the intensity, however that tech is not very accurate.

I am, however, hoping that this is the implementation of the prototype resistive display we saw before, and there are a couple reasons for that. First, resistive displays permit the use of styli. Second, resistive displays are less power hungry. A potential down side, and something I am slightly concerned with, is just how they plan to make the screen – namely, I like the way a glass, capacitive screen feels.

Anyway, interesting technology, really exciting potential products, however its still only a patent application and its likely that we’re at least a year or two away from seeing it in practice.

-Nokia FanBoy

patent application
via: Engadget Mobile (read)

Ok, so its been a busy week and its not looking like today is going to be any quieter. Thus, I will only update on the important things, and only mention the main points.

Qt, the development suite that Nokia acquired a while back, has added multitouch and gesture support for its 4.6 release. This applies to Nokia’s Symbian and Maemo powered devices. Actually this precludes aa interesting point, namely, this means that there will be Symbian and Maemo powered devices with multitouch capable screens. This can be achieved either by using a capacitive screen, or by using Stantum’s technology on resistive screens. Now we already know that Nokia is using capacitive screens, the Nokia X6 is an example, however I do hope that Stantum’s technology gets incorporated as that would still allow for use of a stylus.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Symbian-Freak (read)