双语新闻:触摸科技:未来一切皆有可能

Technology Report: The Future Of Touch

For mobile touch technology, it's only the beginning.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone revolutionized the mobile phone with easy-to-use touch-screen technology that allows users to surf the Web, tap out messages or control any number of inventive applications. But the iPhone and the touch-screen handsets every major phone maker has since come out with have only scratched the surface of the potential of touch.

The next generation of touch technology, now in development, promises to be even more intuitive and user-friendly. 'All the work is on improving the speed of devices, the reliability and how they interact with humans,' says Chris Ard, director of marketing for touch technology at semiconductor maker Atmel Corp., based in San Jose, Calif.

Among the highlights: Developers are working on new applications for 'multitouch' screens, like those on the iPhone, the GD900 from LG Electronics Inc., due for release in the U.K. imminently, and others soon to come, including Palm Inc.'s Pre. These screens can process commands the user gives with more than one finger, which broadens the possibilities for applications. Other developers are working on advances in 'haptic' feedback -- vibrations and other physical sensations that are now used, for instance, to let a gamer know she's reached a new level, but that can also be used to communicate emotions and may soon give a touch-screen keyboard the feel of a physical keyboard. And for those who still prefer to work with keys on their phones, even some traditional keyboards will perform certain functions in response to touch commands, like a finger run lightly across the keys.

When the iPhone was introduced in 2007, its multitouch capability was among its most eye-catching features. Apple Chairman Steve Jobs demonstrated how photos could be resized simply with a pinching or expanding gesture using a thumb and a finger on the screen.

Software developers set to work on multitouch applications. Some, for instance, allow users to play virtual musical instruments on the phone. But multitouch developers have largely focused on games.

Last month, France's Gameloft SA released a Terminator Salvation game for the iPhone to coincide with the release of the movie with the same title. The game makes use of half-circle, or arc, gestures on both sides of the screen to control the characters' movements and view -- a refinement of the slide gestures that many games use to move characters through their environment.

The game is designed for users to control characters with two thumbs, as they would in traditional nonmobile games. Gameloft says that this takes into account the natural rotation of the thumb bone to achieve the most comfortable and intuitive movements by the user.

Another innovator in multitouch games, Illusion Labs AB, is planning a new release for the fall. The Swedish company is the creator of Sway, in which the user's thumbs control the swinging movements of a monkey-like character, and TouchGrind, in which two fingers of one hand direct the motion of a skateboard.

Haptic technology already has many nonmobile applications. In videogames, for instance, it can give gamers the sensation of actually steering a car they're controlling on the screen. In medical training, it can make procedures like endoscopy performed on a simulator feel real, so that medical personnel can develop a better sense of how to perform them.

The use of haptics in mobile phones is still in its infancy, with Samsung Electronics Co. leading the way. Its Omnia phone, for example, vibrates to confirm each touch of the screen, and a vibration that shudders to a stop indicates that a call has been dropped.

But the wider deployment of haptic-enabled phones will open the door to new applications.

Immersion Corp., a haptics developer based in San Jose, Calif., says that in the next nine months three mobile carriers will be launching applications it created that allow users to communicate emotions nonverbally. For example, frustration can be communicated by shaking the phone, which will create a vibration that will be felt by the other party. That person might then choose to respond with what the developers call a 'love tap' -- a rhythmic tapping on the phone that will produce a heartbeat-like series of vibrations on the other party's phone.

Immersion's general manager of touch business, Craig Vachon, says the next step is developing a phone that can deliver a physical sensation based on the position of a finger on a touch screen. One application would be a touch-screen keyboard that feels like a traditional keyboard, so that users could more easily distinguish exactly where each key begins and ends. The idea would be to help users avoid errant taps on the screen and the resulting garbled messages.

'The technology is such that we could blindfold you and you would be able to feel the demarcation between the keys of a keypad, on a completely flat touch screen,' Mr. Vachon says. The technology is being tested in handsets now and should be made available to consumers sometime in the next 12 months, he says.
For now, at least, many mobile users prefer the accuracy of a physical keyboard rather than a touch screen. A new technology is being designed to allow the best of both worlds: a keyboard that can also respond to touch commands.

The keyboard, being developed by Berlin-based Tech21 Sensor GmbH, responds normally when a letter or number is pressed. But a user could, say, scroll down a Web page by running a finger lightly across the keyboard; pressing a little harder might be the command to scroll faster or zoom in on a page. The technology is expected to start being deployed in mobile phones in 2010 or 2011.

'We want to provide any object with keys or a keypad with smarter keys,' says Tech21 Chairman Christian Lindholm.

Ms. Sandler is a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires in London. She can be reached at .

Kathy Sandler

就移动触摸科技而言，现在还只是刚刚开始。

苹果公司(Apple Inc.)的iPhone无疑是移动电话行业的革命性产品，其便于使用的触摸屏技术可以让用户浏览网络，敲打短信息或者操控任何数量的新颍应用软件。但是，iPhone以及之后任何主要移动电话制造商推出的触摸屏手机都只是揭开了具有无限可能的触摸科技的冰山一角而已。

目前正在开发当中的下一代触摸屏科技承诺将为用户带来更加直观和友好的体验。位于加利福利亚洲圣何塞的半导体制造商Atmel Corp.的触摸科技营销总监克里斯•阿德(Chris Ard)表示，所有的工作都集中在改进设备的速度、可靠性以及它们如何与人类互动方面。

其中，尤其引人瞩目的是，开发人员正在研制针对“多触摸”屏幕的应用软件，如iPhone、以及LG电子很快将在英国推出的GD900、还有Palm Inc.最近推出的Pre等等所使用的触摸屏。这些屏幕可疑处理用户多个手指下达的要求，从而拓宽了应用软件的可能性。其它开发人员则在攻克“虚拟触觉”反馈技术──比如说，用来让游戏玩家知道自己跳升一级的震动及其它物体感官功能，同时也可以用来沟通感情，甚至很快让触摸键盘具备物体键盘的感觉。对于那些仍然青睐使用手机按键的用户，甚至一些传统按键也将能够响应部分触摸指令，如一个手指轻轻滑过按键。

摸游戏

当iPhone于2007年推出的时候，多触摸功能是其最大的卖点之一。苹果电脑董事长史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)演示了照片如何通过一个手指在触摸屏上的挤压或者扩大手势被缩小或者放大。

软件开发人员着手开发多触摸应用软件。比如说，一些可以让用户在手机上演奏虚拟乐器。但是，多触摸技术的开发人员大体上更多地关注游戏。

上个月，法国的Gameloft SA在电影《魔鬼终结者：未来救赎》上映的同时，发布了同名的iPhone手机游戏。该游戏利用在屏幕两边的半圆、弧形边缘，来控制游戏人物的动作和视角，比起许多游戏所使用的以滑动手势移动人物在游戏场景当中的位置，其设计更为精细。

该游戏旨在让用户以两个大拇指控制游戏人物，就像游戏玩家在操作传统的非手机游戏的时候一样。Gameloft表示，这种技术考虑到拇指关节的自然转动，用户因此可以实现最为舒适和直观的移动。

另外一家在多触摸游戏领域的创新者Illusion Labs AB计划在今年秋季推出一款新游戏。这家瑞典公司是Sway和TouchGrind游戏的创造者。在Sway中，用户可以用拇指控制象猴子一样的游戏人物的动作；而在TouchGrind中，用户可以利用一只手上的两个手指控制滑雪板的移动。

触觉技术在非手机领域已经得到广泛运用。比如说，在视频游戏当中，它可以让游戏玩家感到自己好像真地在驾驶他们所控制的屏幕上的赛车。在医疗培训当中，它可以让在模拟器上操作的内窥镜检查法等程序感觉异常真实，医疗人员从而可以更好地了解如何使用这些器材。

虚拟触觉技术在手机方面的使用仍然处于萌芽阶段，三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.)是这方面的领先者。比如说，其Omnia手机在用户触 屏幕后会产生振动，而渐渐停止的振动则表明来电被取消。

不过，采用虚拟触觉技术手机更为广泛的运用将为新兴的应用软件开辟全新的天地。

加州圣何塞的虚拟触觉技术开发商Immersion Corp.表示，未来九个月份，三家移动运营商将推出其开发的应用软件，用户可以以非语言的形式沟通感情。比如说，如果用户感到沮丧，他可以通过摇动手机，对方的手机即会感到震动。对方可能进而选择开发商所称的“爱的轻拍”(love tap)表达安慰之情。这是一种有韵律的轻拍，它会让对方的手机产生象心跳一样的系列震动。

Immersion负责触摸业务的总经理克雷格•瓦乔(Craig Vachon)表示，下一步将使开发可以基于手指在触摸屏上的位置传递物理感观的手机。其应用领域之一就是让触摸屏键盘的使用体验更像是传统物理键盘，用户因而可以更加容易地区分按键在哪里开始和结束。其设计理念在于帮助用户避免屏幕触摸的失误，以及由之产生的混淆信息。

瓦乔先生表示，通过这项技术，即便我们蒙上你的眼睛，你也能感觉得到按键的具体位置，即便是在一个完全平坦的触摸屏上。他说，目前该技术正在手机上进行测试，未来12个月内应能与消费者见面。

摸键盘

至少在目前来看，许多手机用户仍然偏爱物理键盘的准确性，而不是触摸屏。开发人员正在设计一项可以兼顾这两种需求的新技术：一个可以同时回应触摸指令的物理键盘。

柏林的Tech21 Sensor GmbH即在研制这种键盘。当用户按下一个字母或者数字的时候，它可以正常回应。但是，用户也可以通过手指上下触摸键盘来滑动网页；如果按得稍重一点，可能就是代表滑动地更快一些或者放大页面的意思。这项技术预计将于2010年或者2011年运用在手机上。

Tech21董事长克里斯汀•林德海姆(Christian Lindholm)表示，我们希望为任何带有按键或键盘的设备提供更加智能的按键。

Kathy Sandler