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Xperia Touch makes any surface interactive
- sethherr 9y agoThis is awesome and exciting. Looking at it I can only be disappointed in science fiction's failure (specifically tv and movies) to move beyond Minority Report inspired glass touch screens.
- et-al 9y agoI wouldn't necessarily blame science fiction as a whole, but the moreso the concept artists or directors for sticking with physical touch screens. And while many may think of Minority Report as the innovator for interfaces, the current Avengers' Tony Stark has a holographic interface that he manipulates in space. (I'm just as excited as you are because I had the same idea in middle school, but until a manufacturer like Apple implements it in a flagship device, I'm just considering this a novel gadget. And as another aside, I always thought the idea of moving screens the way Tom Cruise does as super tiring--lemme just nudge that Thinkpad nub.)
- DKnoll 9y agoWhy be disappointed? Reverse projecting onto a 'glass' panel would be better UX, with this your hand can interrupt the beam of the projector obscuring the picture.
- bobajeff 9y agoCombining a projector with a touchscreen and Android. Sounds like a bad idea until you see the person cooking while scrolling through a recipe on the counter.
- Veratyr 9y agoThat and the 1500 EUR price. Can you imagine spending 2-3 large, high quality TVs worth of money and leaving it on the counter? Don't know how practical it is but a cool extension would be to mount it on a movable mount on the ceiling and have it pop up on any surface you like.
- colanderman 9y agoIn every kitchen of every home I've ever lived in, counter space has been a premium. A tablet affixed to the wall is a lot more practical for 1/20th the cost. But I suppose if you can afford this gadget, you are probably not wanting for kitchen counter space.
- bobajeff 9y agoYeah I didn't find out the cost of this thing until sometime after I'd commented. I guess if the tablet used leap motion like sensors for gestures that might work otherwise you'd have the issue of messy hands (common state while cooking).
- NTripleOne 9y agoI mean if all you want to do is scroll through recipes in a browser, you could get away with one of those ridiculously cheap chinese tablets that cost like $30. Or a first gen nexus 7, they're piss cheap now too.
- TYPE_FASTER 9y agoAnd the projector is hitting the stove and counter, and highlighting where to put which ingredients when, and it's a Tasty video...
- Analemma_ 9y agoThis looks like one of those products that would be extremely cool if it worked as well as advertised, but also not likely to do that (which is a recurring theme with the so-called "Weird Sony"). I once tried that "projection keyboard" in a Sharper Image store at the mall and it seemed to register about 20% of my keypresses. It's totally possible the tech has gotten better since then, but I'll wait to see reviews before I spend any money.
- et-al 9y agoYeah, apparently IBM engineers built a projection keyboard back in 1992. It's not surprising we haven't seen it sooner because of detection issues like you mentioned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_keyboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_keyboard
- cptskippy 9y agoLets also not forget Weird Sony's pricing which usually makes most of their products unapproachable.
- obtino 9y agoThere are electronic whiteboards which behave in the same way and work extremely well.
- NikolaeVarius 9y agoFrom what I remember of smart boards, they were pretty universally hated.
- malnourish 9y agoHave smartboards improved? I've had nothing but bad luck with them
- kalleboo 9y agoI've heard from a friend who tried one at electronics store here in Japan where they're on demo that it worked really well, he tried 10 finger multi-touch and everything.
- blazespin 9y agoLimited because of glare glare glare. Still, neat.
- adambrenecki 9y agoPricing is €1,499, according to http://bgr.com/2017/02/28/sony-xperia-touch-release-date-price/ http://bgr.com/2017/02/28/sony-xperia-touch-release-date-pri... This would be awesome if it weren't for that price.
- Jonnax 9y agoIt's one of those products that are quite unique which drives up the manufacturing cost. But also niche enough that it won't sell in large volumes.
- oliv__ 9y agoWhy is this not everywhere? I find this way cooler than over-hyped VR.
- hexomancer 9y agoI mean it is cool but how is it cooler than VR? VR can achieve the exact same effect as this and more.
- cwyers 9y agoBecause VR doesn't scale up like this. If you want multiple people interacting with the same virtual surface, this is much better than VR.
- sirmike_ 9y agoYes I think it is much cooler than VR. This would be used every day. No one is going to use it on a table to to play the 2 half decent games it can do /snark. But in the kitchen in the wall mode, with some good Google Assistant integration. Vs VR? No one uses VR everyday. However the cynic in me guffaws at the VR price level. Jesus Christ. Way to much. At least with an ok VR rig I have a general purpose computer to use or put to work. Maybe I'm wrong but I can see this being used everyday in the morning and evening. It would become a fixture. VR only exists for gaming. No one is going to put VR goggles on every day to watch the news or check the time.
- andybak 9y ago> VR only exists for gaming. No one is going to put VR goggles on every day to watch the news or check the time. False dichotomy. There's a huge range of potential and real applications for VR that are neither games nor "watching the news". Pop back here when you've tried SoundStage, TiltBrush, some decent social VR, CAD or interior design in VR, some high-quality VR storytelling experiences, training/education VR, historical reconstructions, music visualization, data visualisation, a physics sandbox, visual programming, interactive character animation etc.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoThe website makes it look, essentially, like a 1.500 € toy. I don't need a touch screen to watch a movie with a projector, I can use a whiteboard to write messages, I can even point a projector at a white board (which is common for teachers to do). I don't think I would ever put such an expensive device in the kitchen while cooking. I'm all for innovation, but this does seem like a bit of a solution in search of a problem. I guess you could say the same about VR, and now they're coming up with good business cases for it, but VR hasn't been touted as a consumer device from day 1, it's only now after some time that it's reaching the common man.
- blazespin 9y agoNo, it definitely has huge uses. Mostly on a wall though. It's a massive portable touch screen. Think of demos. The problem is glare, you'll need to dim the lights to use it.
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- patrickg_zill 9y agoTypical Sony... neat execution but engineered to be built cheaply. 720P video in 2017? 3GB RAM? Not room-bright, but you have to dim the lights to use it? Fixing all the above is technically possible but would cost more.
- LeoPanthera 9y agoDo not let perfect be the enemy of good.
- patrickg_zill 9y agoI just don't want good to be the enemy of "even better" :-)
- H4CK3RM4N 9y agoI feel like 720p/3GB would be capable enough for most basic Android utility apps, and some social media, which appears to be the use case they're targeting here.
- firmgently 9y agoProjectors don't need to be as high-res as screens, the pixels spread out in the same way as a torch-beam does so you don't get blockiness (and extremely fine resolutions would be lost), and with the applications this would be used for why would you need more precision than 720p? People obsess on resolution too much, probably because it's a nice simple number to compare. Same goes for 3GB RAM.. what will this need loads of RAM for? Isn't it basically an external display combined with cameras and gesture input/processing? [EDIT TO ADD] maybe I'm wrong about this, I thought it was a peripheral but it seems to be standalone.. although the example apps don't sound very taxing. I agree with the general point about Sony designing with cheap components etc but can't see how it matters in this instance.
- sksareen1 9y agoNot sure why the skeptics are all down on this - I think this is awesome. If nothing else it's a great POC product that will get imitated and integrated into other ecosystems (can imagine Google incorporating this into the next Home device), and opens up the world. No use case? Ever needed to watch something, or show something but lugging around a 30'' screen wasn't an option? You can make ANY surface an interactive input device and screen. From consumer to industry applications I see a lot of potential. If they make this a key product it could grow, but if Sony licenses it out (yes I know they're not really big on that), it could open us up to a whole lot of applications and integrations.
- gambiting 9y agoBecause the pictures are bullshit. You can't have a projector showing a white image on a dark surface, and they have a countertop example which displays white letters and a white picture on a black marble countertop. Physics literally don't work like that.
- johncolanduoni 9y agoYou mean the piano and math pictures? The finish on those surfaces makes both of those easily possible (I also don't think that countertop is marble). You can see the reflection of a white light on a finished marble countertop. Black under ambient light != always black, even under a directed light source.
- TheOtherHobbes 9y agoThe finish is the problem. Glass is a clean, smooth surface for touch. Walls and wood aren't. The odd tap is fine, but any app that relies on a lot of dragging is going to feel unpleasant, for at least some users.
- _pmf_ 9y agoWould love to use this with my kids. I'm a VR skeptic, but novel variations of AR are always great to see.
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- KaoruAoiShiho 9y agoI feel like if Steve Jobs were alive Apple would've made this.
- ekianjo 9y agoGood idea but poor branding - Xperia is known for phones, and not for anything else. They should have called it something else.
- freeone3000 9y agoThis is a tablet, like the Xperia Z4.
- TronFourtyTwo 9y agoI started having a good opinion of Sony while ago, when I knew how they behave [See Sailfish OS and in general their openness (not complete at all, but better than others one) regard android platform]. I hope the better for them.
- kalleboo 9y agoSony Mobile is still somewhat separate from Sony itself I believe, since the Sony Ericsson days when it started out mostly the old Ericsson mobile team. E.g. they still have development in Sweden (although with continual layoffs). Back in the day Sony Ericsson and Sony were night and day. Sony made DRMed ATRAC players, and Sony Ericsson made walkman phones thst would let you Bluetooth MP3 files between phones right from the music player.
- hawski 9y agoSony seems to make cool devices like this one. Or like the ePaper one for $700 [0]. But price seems too high for them to achieve a wide success. [0] https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-digitalpaper/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-digitalpaper-digitalpaper.shtml https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-digitalpaper/resource.sol...
- wapz 9y agoThat's a sad thing about sony products. I know they can justify the prices due to high R&D costs but it makes it difficult for the average consumer to purchase their products (I'm fairly sure I'm not their target). For example, I went to the Sony showroom in Japan in 2006/7(?) and they had a cool bluetooth speaker that rolled around based on the music it was playing. The problem is it was ~$350.
- shinratdr 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Rolly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Rolly
- wapz 9y agoThat's the one! > the Rolly Choreographer software produces far better results when it analyzes tracks and creates motion files before loading them onto Rolly I like how the staff just happened to not tell me about that part (thinking back I'm almost positive the demo had pre-loaded tracks)
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- Naushad 9y agoNothing new here, POC concepts already done, concepts and code open sourced 5 years ago. Just new packaging with form. http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#ABOUT http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#ABOUT
- f_allwein 9y agoalthough some of my friends said the same thing when the iPhone came out. Packaging and form do matter...
- ousta 9y agoI dont understand the skeptics its amazing to have a company such as Sony in the engineering and product design landscape doing things like this. I believe they have always been the best product company in the world, they might have shitty marketing and sales spitch but comon, the Vaio were a marvel of computers, sleek looking with nice specs, the Aibo is probably the greatest consumer product ever created and a marvel of imagination, their phones were precursors noticably the xperia compact were the only phones on the market that provided high-end performance for a small size (later to be copied by apple btw), the playstation is an amazing system and has always been, actually most of their product range is amazing, their cameras are the best on the market (the sony A7S is a marvel of engineering), their 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector is crazy as well. Really we owe much to this company and for me this has always been the only giant that I ever respected.
- batat 9y agoAwful contrast on lit surfaces (like any projector) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW8kzP7qnD8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW8kzP7qnD8
- anc84 9y ago23-80 inches (60-150cm) means the diagonal axis of the projection surface, right? How bright is 100 lumens? Sounds very very low to me compared to standard lighting bulbs.
- mmjaa 9y agoMusicians can use this immediately. I'd like to write an app for it that I can use with my piano. In fact, pretty much any object could be the use-case for this. Very exciting .. I wonder when they'll be available in Europe.
- samuell 9y agoThought the same. The first "screen" that's big enough for reasonably fit a playable piano keyboard.
- glenneroo 9y agoAccording to The Verve article (with interesting test video) linked elsewhere: > It’s going on sale in Europe sometime this spring and has a suggested retail price of €1,499 ($1,583).
- puranjay 9y agoHow do you overcome the tactile nature of musical instruments though?
- Neliquat 9y agoExactly. Even as an electronic musician, I find myself going as tactile and kino as possible when trying to be expressive. Anyone can sequence notes, and notes don't make music. This will be good for producers, but not much value to musicians.
- puranjay 9y agoExactly. My usual workflow is to build out my songs on a physical instrument (Guitar for the main chords -> a keyboard for the melody), then sequence them in Ableton. It just feels more "natural" to create something new on a physical instrument
- spookyuser 9y agoI have no idea how well this works in real life. But if the interactive surface is even close to what the video shows then isn't a big portion of the microsoft future concept video [1] fulfilled? [1] https://youtu.be/w-tFdreZB94?t=2m22s https://youtu.be/w-tFdreZB94?t=2m22s
- josefresco 9y agoI'm especially interested in the walk by, weather/clock feature. Instead of mounting an iPad/LCD on the wall I can just drop this on some furniture and have the same "persistent display" experience. Having my calendar display would also be very helpful.
- tjelen 9y agoTheVerge has a nice hands-on video of the prototype, which I think explains the whole thing better than the official website: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/2/27/14737824/sony-xperia-touch-projector-android-touchscreen-mwc-2017 https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/2/27/14737824/s... I like the projector mode a lot.
- nepotism2016 9y agoLooks awesome. Now I need someone to write up a Raspberry Pi version
- glenneroo 9y agoSony just has to get hacked again, but this time the hackers release code for all their cool projects.
- prawn 9y agoWhen the price comes down, I can see this having potential. Beam recipes up on the kitchen splashback, or household notes on a wall in the kitchen, table-top games for the kids, office status board on whichever wall suits. No need to wall-mount a display or connect a projector to a PC. There are obvious limitations, even if they never improve the contrast, there are still a lot of decent use cases.
- ynniv 9y agoA bad touchscreen. Every touch I see has the appropriate fingers overextended and the others tucked away, as you would expect from a vision system. We forget how much we hated touch screens before Apple made one that works well.
- amelius 9y agoNice, but they conveniently painted in the shadows in most of the demo imagery.
- TYPE_FASTER 9y agoThis looks way better than sitting in a dark conference room with a projector, trying to describe to the person projecting what you want them to do on their laptop.
- dgudkov 9y agoI wish Google Home had a built-in projector like Xperia Touch. That would be my perfect home device.
- kzahel 9y agoSomewhat similar, Sony's project T http://www.futurelab.sony.net/T/ http://www.futurelab.sony.net/T/ has a popup demo at 717 Market street during business hours. Anyone off the street can drop by. They have several other demos installed.
- capybara 9y agoThis reminds me of the very cool research of Chris Harrison, a professor at Carnegie Mellon. Lots of interesting work thinking about different ways to interact with computers. http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/Welcome http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/Welcome