Touch? Teaches Objects To Sense Your Touch

Researchers at Disney and Carnegie Mellon University have created an interesting new technology using Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing that allows nearly any object to sense multiple points of contact on its complex service. This would allow, for example, doorknobs to understand when to lock and unlock based on your finger position and environmental controls based on the user's current body position. Lying down? The lights go out. Feet on the floor? The lights go up. The technology, built jointly by CMU and the Disney Research Institute in Pittsburgh, Penn., can also add more interesting interaction to smartphones. Even bodies of water can turn into "touchscreens" with your position inside the liquid registering as a touch event.

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