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A newly published patent application discusses the possibility of incorporating additional
proximity sensors (PS) around multi-touch panels to detect body parts.
This relates to the use of one or more proximity sensors in comb...
A fairly new filing from Apple discusses the advantages of using proximity sensors more generously
to aid its multi-touch technology on devices larger than the iPhone, which would allow certain
functions to be invoked without the user having to physically touch the display.
pFiled under: a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/hardware/" rel="tag"Hardware/a, a
href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/odds-and-ends/" rel="tag"Odds and ends/a, a
href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/apple/" rel="tag"Apple/a/ppimg vspace="5" hspace="5" border="0"
align="right" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tuaw.com/media/2008/12/prox-293482048.png"
/Two Apple patent filings have piqued interest this week: One for a touch surface that detects
where your finger is hovered above it, and another for a liquid-cooled laptop. /p pThe a
href="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2amp;Sect2=HITOFFamp;u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htmlamp;r=3amp;p=1amp;f=Gamp;l=50amp;d=PG01amp;S1=Apple.AS.amp;OS=an/Appleamp;RS=AN/Apple"hover
surface/a works by measuring light reflected off your finger at various wavelengths to figure out
where it is over the surface. Apple uses a basic proximity sensor in the iPhone (so it knows when
it's up against your ear), but this new technique would allow more precise recognition of objects
hovered above a touch-sensitive surface. Unlike a graphics tablet, which requires a stylus, your
finger or hand is likely the intended tool for this surface, as evidenced by the drawings. /p
pSecond, the a
href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/02/apple_looking_into_liquid_cooled_macbooks.html"liquid-cooled
laptop/a, as with similarly-cooled Power Mac G5s from a few years ago, is designed to improve
performance by reducing the temperature of the components of the computer. The patent describes
wrapping a small heat pipe around various components in the computer that contains a liquid
coolant. /p pLiquid-cooled G5s, though, were prone to leaks, which led to heavy damage and dismay
for users of the systems. Apple entirely replaced many of the systems that leaked, rather than
trying to repair them./p p[Via a
href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/12/04/apple.hover.touchscreen/"Electronista/a and a
href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/12/02/apple_looking_into_liquid_cooled_macbooks.html"AppleInsider/a.]/pp
style="padding:5px;clear:both;"a href="http://www.tuaw.com"TUAW/aa
href="http://www.tuaw.com/2008/12/04/patent-roundup-hover-touch-surfaces-liquid-cooled-laptops/"Patent
Roundup: 'Hover' touch surfaces, liquid-cooled laptops/a originally appeared on a
href="http://www.tuaw.com"The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)/a on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:54:00 EST.
Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a.br
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A fairly new filing from Apple discusses the advantages of using proximity sensors more generously
to aid its multi-touch technology on devices larger than the iPhone, which would allow certain
functions to be invoked without the user having to physically touch the display.
An Apple patent (number 20080297487) for
a display integrated photodiode matrix has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. The
invention relates generally to proximity sensing displays, and more particularly, to proximity
sensing displays using infrared or other radiation for sensing proximity events.
A newly published patent application discusses the possibility of incorporating additional
proximity sensors (PS) around multi-touch panels to detect body parts. Quote: This relates to
the use of one or more proximity sensors in combination with one or more touch sensors in a
multi-touch panel. The combination of these two different types of sensors can be used to detect
the presence of one or more fingers, body parts or other objects hovering above a touch-sensitive
surface or touching the touch-sensitive surface Apple already incorporates a proximity sensor
in the iPhone to turn the iPhone's display off, but the patent application explores the concept in
other settings as shown in the above picture. One example given is the automatic display of
on-screen buttons when a finger hovers above the screen.
The patent application is an extension of one from 2007, so doesn't represent many new ideas, but
continues to show Apple's interest in mixing modes of input to produce a richer experience.
The winning project from American Maker is
now available as a kit -
AIRHEADS - AIRDRUMS - Winner of the 2008 MAKE FAIRE Chicago " The best instrument they have seen
since the Theremin"
Airheads MINI 4 kit are sensors to be used with midi drum brains and synthesizers or midi I/O
devices allowing one to play instrument in the air just by waving your hands over the Airheads
seniors in mid air. These sensors not only trigger your sounds but also sense velocity, they also
make great proximity switching for many projects and applications, music, hobby robotics, home
electronics, control lights with just a wave of a hand. use these with your VDRUMS or hook them
up to your Arduino drum machine. Limited Time! Get a free GIG bag with your order! Hmmm,
definitely a lot of potential even beyond musical use! MINI 4 Airheads
Kit
a
href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/new_in_the_maker_shed_air.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890"
/Read more/a | a
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/ Permalink/a | a
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/Comments/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/kits/?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more
articles in Kits/a | a
href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F12%2Fnew_in_the_maker_shed_air.htmltitle=New%20in%20the%20Maker%20Shed%3A%20Airheads%20sensor%20kitbodytext=%20The%20winning%20project%20from%20American%20Maker%20is%20now%20available%20as%20a%20kit%20-%20AIRHEADS%20-%20AIRDRUMS%20-%20Winner%20of%20the%202008%20MAKE%20FAIRE%20Chicago%20%26quot%3B%20The%20best%20instrument%20they%20have%20seen%20since%20the%20Theremin%26quot%3B%20Airheads%20MINI%204%20kit%20are...topic=tech_news"
/Digg this!/a
pstrong1984:/strong Poison gas leaks from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. It
spreads throughout the city, killing thousands of people outright and thousands more subsequently
in a disaster often described as the worst industrial accident in history./p pUnion Carbide chose
Bhopal, a city of 900,000 people in the state of Madhya Pradesh, because of its central location
and its proximity to a lake and to the country's vast rail system./p pThe plant opened in 1969 and
produced the pesticide carbaryl, which was marketed as Sevin. Ten years later the plant began
manufacturing a href="http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/methylis.html"methyl isocyanate/a, or MIC,
a cheaper but more toxic substance used in the making of pesticides./p pIt was MIC gas that was
released when water leaked into one of the storage tanks late on the night of Dec. 2, a
href="http://www.bhopal.org/whathappened.html"setting off the disaster/a. Gas began escaping from
Tank 610 around 10:30 p.m. although the main warning siren didn't go off for another two hours./p
pThe first effects were felt almost immediately in the vicinity of the plant. As the gas cloud
spread into Bhopal proper, residents were awakened to a blinding, vomiting, lung-searing hell.
Panic ensued and hundreds of people died in the chaotic stampede that followed./p pAn exact death
toll has never been established. Union Carbide, not surprisingly, set the toll on the low end at
3,800, while municipal workers claimed to have cleared at least 15,000 bodies in the immediate
aftermath of the accident. Thousands have died since and an estimated 50,000 people became invalids
or developed chronic respiratory conditions as a result of being poisoned./p pRegardless of the
numbers, all a href="http://www.american.edu/ted/bhopal.htm"evidence pointed to Union Carbide/a and
its Indian subsidiary, as well as the Indian government, its partner in the factory, being
responsible, mainly through negligence, for what occurred. Despite the extreme volatility and
toxicity of the chemicals in use at the factory, safeguards known to be substandard were ignored
rather than fixed./p pIn the subsequent investigations and legal proceedings, it was determined,
among other things, that:/p ul class="list1" lipStaffing at the plant had been cut to save money.
Workers who complained about codified safety violations were reprimanded, and occasionally
fired./p/li lipNo plan existed for coping with a disaster of this magnitude./li/p lipTank alarms
that would have alerted personnel to the leak hadn't functioned for at least four years./li/p
lipOther backup systems were either not functioning or nonexistent./li/p lipThe plant was equipped
with a single back-up system, unlike the four-stage system typically found in American plants./li/p
lipTank 610 held 42 tons of MIC, well above the prescribed capacity. (It is believed that 27 tons
escaped in the leak.)/li/p lipWater sprays designed to dilute escaping gas were poorly installed
and proved ineffective./li/p lipDamage known to exist, such as to piping and valves, had not been
repaired or replaced because the cost was considered too high. Warnings from U.S. and Indian
experts about other shortcomings at the plant were similarly ignored./li/p /ul pThe aftermath of
the disaster was almost as chaotic. Union Carbide was a
href="http://www.bhopal.com/ucs.htm"initially responsive/a, rushing aid and money to Bhopal.
Nevertheless, faced with a $3 billion lawsuit, the company dug in, eventually agreeing to a $470
million settlement, a mere 15 percent of the original claim. In any case, very little money ever
reached the victims of the disaster./p pa
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(chairman)"Warren Anderson/a, Union Carbide's
CEO, went before Congress in December 1984, pledging his company's renewed commitment to safety, a
promise that rang hollow in India (and probably to Congress as well)./p pAnderson was subsequently
charged with manslaughter by Indian prosecutors but managed to evade an international arrest
warrant and disappeared. Investigators from Greenpeace, which has kept up an active interest in the
case, found Anderson in 2002, alive and well and living comfortably in the Hamptons. The United
States has shown no inclination to hand him over to Indian justice, and most of the serious charges
against him have been dropped./p pUnion Carbide, meanwhile, was acquired by the Dow Corporation in
2001, which refused to assume any additional liability for Bhopal, arguing that the debt had
already been paid through various court settlements. It did go on to settle another outstanding
claim against Union Carbide, this one for $2.2 billion made by asbestos workers in Texas./p pA few
outstanding legal claims from Bhopal remain to be settled, both in India and the United States, but
most of the court wrangling is over./p pThe victims of the disaster, those who live on, continue
dealing with various health problems — including chronic respiratory problems,
vision problems and an increased incidence of cancer and birth defects — and an
environment that remains contaminated to this day./p pemSource: Various/em/pbr style="clear:
both;"/ a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;'
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An Apple patent (number 20080297487) for
a display integrated photodiode matrix has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. The
invention relates generally to proximity sensing displays, and more particularly, to proximity
sensing displays using infrared or other radiation for sensing proximity events.
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