Tap On, Tap Off -- The Tapper
from the as-seen-on-TV dept
Instead of moving things around on a vibrating table using calculated oscillations, how about turning almost any surface into a touch-sensitive interface by measuring vibrations and back-calculating the location of where they originated. By using time-reversal techniques, sounds and vibrations that are picked up by a few sensors can detect, for instance, where someone is tapping on a desktop. This could be used for such applications as switching on/off different devices (watch out, Clapper!). Similar techniques, using several well-placed microphones, could detect where a sniper is shooting from. The computation to do these tasks in real-time is still a bit beyond practical. At the same time, the accuracy (and filtering out interfering sounds) probably needs to be improved, but the technique certainly could eventually be applied to a lot of interesting applications.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Wax On Wax Off Daniel-san
As it is, rogue waves can happen spontaneously at sea, if waves overlap the right way.
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/257.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Wax On Wax Off Daniel-san
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Already patented
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Already patented
Where's the tactile response? Oh yeah, no one wants that anymore, that's why "Touch Screens" have taken over the world - Not!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Finding snipers
[ link to this | view in thread ]