Variable Tactile Surface Touchscreens - Neatorama

(YouTube Link)

Researchers are Carnegie Mellon University are developing touchscreens that are textured to provide a variety of different shapes for users to interact with. If I understand this video correctly, this is more than just a shaped screen. The buttons on a single screen can actually change shape to present different types of interfaces. This technology could be very useful for the visually-impaired or people who want to use a machine while looking at something else.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/your-next-touchscreen-might-come-inflatable-buttons

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they better come up with a latex-free version. many many people have very severe respiratory latex allergies... even when they are just in proximity to it, not even touching it. breathing in latex fumes can cause respiratory issues and even anaphalactic shock. oops.

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Well they are out of luck, Apple Inc. is already much further than that. A patent released a few weeks ago, already goes far beyond that.

By beyond I mean, that Apple has described a method of providing tactile feedback for touchscreen using low powered piezoelectric actuators that can be activated on command. By fluctuating the frequency of these actuators, the user will "feel" different surfaces as their finger moves across it. As an example, a device might display a virtual click wheel which vibrates at a different frequency at the center. Users will sense the difference and use the click wheel without looking at it.

Read more on this on MacRumors.com: http://www.macrumors.com/2009/07/02/haptic-feedback-fingerprint-identification-and-rfid-tag-readers-in-future-iphones/

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Its for use in conjunction with a conical colander.

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Yarn / rope bobbin.

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Pinocchio's ice cream!

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It's an early prototype of "Mr. Microphone".

A very, very early prototype developed back in the 12th century.

"Hark, yon fair maiden! We shalt returneth soon and abscond with thy personage!"

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I don't know, but it surely hurts...

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Looks like an awl or a bung. I'll say a bung. Don't know what for....

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Buttplug

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It's a krumkake roller. Krumkake is a Norweigian cookie. It may have been the first cone for ice cream.

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It is a plug used to stop a leak in a ships hull.

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Ya I was gonna say an early prototype of a dildo, but ElGoog and JT kinda beat me to it lol.

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[quote]Sam Saturday
June 25th, 2009 at 7:54 am

It’s an early prototype of “Mr. Microphone”.

A very, very early prototype developed back in the 12th century.

“Hark, yon fair maiden! We shalt returneth soon and abscond with thy personage!”[/quote]
Hilarious.
I think that Chris P has the answer.

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thread cutter. Cuts a thread into things that screw into one another.

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it is used to from waffle cones. the grooves help it cool faster.

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I think this is a foot massager.

Not funny or dirty but possibly correct.

k thx bai

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pasta cutter?

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I believe it is part of a food ricer. For fruit.

To mash fruit and such through a cone shaped strainer.

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It's a Dalek bump.

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If the grooves are not screw grooves but individual circles it could be a bore guage to measure the internal diameter of a tube.

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it's a musical instrument... you scratch it with a wood stick following the beat.

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bird call

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Clearly this is a waffle cone roller.

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Any fool can see that this is an instrument of torture!

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I can only think of dirty uses for it @_@

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Looks like it's used to make a hole bigger: screwing it into a hole forces the hole wider. Although it seems Chris P may have the right of it.

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a bolt?

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@Miss Cellania

Hmmm, yes. Some may call it torture!

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it's a percussion instrument called güiro.

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This is a dieting device, for people hopelessly addicted to ice cream cones. The ridges are very sharp, so when you grab it, it hurts.

Of course, for full effect, use while listening to Lovely Lovely Ludwig.

(Gosh I hope one of you nerds gets that reference.)

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Its a musical instrument called "marimba"

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looks a bit like a conincal sieve push rod.
used to use something Similar for making red chile... but this one isn't quite as comfortable looking.

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A honeydripper?

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For making gnocchi?

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pasta cutter

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It's an old-fashioned, waffle ice cream cone maker. I saw this on a T.V. show and they showed how to use it!

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It's a plum-bob used for testing water depth.

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Wine stopper.

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Had 3 ideas:

1. Wine stopper

2. Plum Bob

3. Pipe deburrer

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#9 - my first thought was that it was a bung to plug bullet holes in military inflatable boats.

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Its a Güiro (weero). It is a musical instrument, a percution. You can hear it in Salsa, Cumbia and other latin rithms. You can also hear it in Santanas "Oye como va".
Amor y paz.

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It's for creating holes to plant seeds.

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It's an antique tool for people who have lockjaw. It's pushed in between the teeth, and turned until the jaw is forced open.

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It's a wooden-ish cylindrical object, with grooves cut into it at equal distances, topped of with a bulbous orbish thingy.

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I had a football coach that had something like this on a lanyard. Was supposed to be for when someone was knocked unconscious, the device could be screwed in between the teeth in order for a trainer or physician to keep a player from swallowing their tongue. That's what I was told anyway.

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I believe it is a tool used for splicing rope or cable - - don't remember what they are called though...

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it's an oral mouth screw for when someone would have a seizure. you twist it to open the person's mouth.

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18th Century Butt Plug

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It's used to roll gnocchi.

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Chris P. # 9 is on the money. Outfitted in WW1 and maybe 2 to plug bullet holes in small craft.

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It looks like a Fid.

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spaghetti cutter

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This is a puncture repair bung for an inflatable life raft. I have one - it's a souvenir from the Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov that ran aground in the Marlborough Sounds in NZ. http://www.nzmaritime.co.nz/lermontov.htm

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#1 is right. We use it when making applesauce.

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It's a device for prying open the jaws of tetanus or "lockjaw" patients.The grooves are in a spiral, and allowed for the gradual opening of the mouth. However, teeth were often shattered in this process-very painful indeed when performed with no anesthesia as was common then!

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It grinds up herbs?

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It's one of those musical instruments that u play by running a stick along it and it makes some sort of noise.

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It's used to crush or grind something like flour, corn, or some sort of mix of ingrediants into a fine powder

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my son says it's a screw,
I say one-size-fits-all-cork

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I don't know what it is but I am more than certain that Perez Hilton owns at least 2 of them.

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It is a stopper for bottles of wine once they have been de-corked.

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Damnit!
I just know I've seen one of these...
just... can't... remember...

Might be for winding iron wire around to make spiral cones of wire.
just don't know what theyre used for.

Allthough I somehow half remember it had to do with making cloth, or spinning wool or something...

hrm.
can't wait for the answer!

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!!!!!!! I RULE !!!!!!!!

No prize this time? Can't you just send me something...anything? A pencil? A half-eaten hotdog?

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