We’ve all become accustomed to using touchscreens in our everyday lives – from the smartphones in our pockets, to the checkout terminals in supermarkets, but touchscreens are being increasingly deployed in some innovative and downright unusual applications.
In this “insight” blog post we’ll take a closer look at some of the more bizarre touchscreen applications that are making the news.
The touchscreen pocket watch –
Developed by Tokoyoflash, the “Kisai Vortex” watch, combines traditional styling with touchscreen technology.
The watch is operated by a small touchscreen in the face which allows the wearers to change modes including; time, alarm, date, and light up settings. The date and time is represented by a “cyclone” of rings, with each ring showing hours, minutes and seconds.
While this new watch looks fantastic, it doesn’t look that easy to read. It’s a personal choice, but we think that “boring old” numbers and numerals do a pretty good job at telling the time!
Touchscreen health chair –
Developed by Sharp, the futuristic “healthcare support chair” is a one-stop-shop for checking a user’s health. The chair can simultaneously check blood pressure, temperature, body motion and heart rate. The chair also features a touchscreen interface which allows for patients and doctors to communicate via videoconferencing.
Marketed as an aid to health, the healthcare support chair isn’t designed to replace your regular trips to the doctor, and isn’t recommended for diagnosing illness or injury. It does however highlight a growing trend for “self-service” diagnostic tools, and the usefulness that touch technology has play in the future of healthcare.
Touchscreen tap
The “SmartFaucet” is an interesting plumbing development from iHouse, which brings bathing into the 21st century!
The high tech tap features facial recognition technology which will automatically set the water temperature to a registered users preferred level and flow, and it even allows users to check emails, the weather and calendar entries all while enjoying a “relaxing” soak in the tub!
Hmm… we all like to keep up to date, but perhaps this is going a little too far and surely that important email can wait until after we’ve washed our hands!
Touchscreen toilet
Yes, that’s right, a touchscreen toilet!
The new “iPotty” (!?) from CTA Digital is a training toilet designed to be used with an Apple iPad, in order to aid toilet training.
Honestly we’re not sure if this will take off, but could we suggest an anti-microbial glass touch screen?
Touchscreens bottles, helping to keep you healthy, or enticing over indulgence?
The new Moikit Seed smart bottle features a small touchscreen in the cap to help track water consumption and reminds you to drink when you need it most. The company hopes to create new positive drinking habits and make drinking water more enjoyable.
The bottles work by using a small sensor inside the Seed’s cap which can measure the air volume left inside the bottle after each drink. When you’ve gone too long without a drink, the cap vibrates and displays a reminder on its LED screen. The bottle cap also display the water’s temperature, and twisting it reveals your daily hydration progress.
On the flip side, you could always try out a new touchscreen enabled WiFi wine bottle.
The new drinking gadget from Kuvee, allows you scroll through images of wine bottles, make notes on your favourite wine & which foods to pair with it, and will even let you know how much wine is left in the bottle. Unfortunately the wine is sold separately (in boring old glass bottles) and also needs to be decanted into the “Touch-bottle” before you can start using it
While we do love to see touchscreens used in new and dynamic ways, we’re not so sure that there is really such a high demand for a touchscreen wine bottle that will tell you when you’ve run out of wine. We can usually work that out for ourselves!
Touchscreen skin
In this application Sci Fi meets reality. Researchers from Seoul National University have been experimenting with flexible electronics, creating a stretchable touch sensor that can be operated while applied to skin.
This touch sensing technology look like it’ bridging the gap between human and computer interaction, moving beyond the current trend of wearable touch enabled devices (such as smart watches) and heading towards the realms of cybernetics and implants.
This really is the stuff of movies and we can’t wait to see its evolution!
While we certainly applaud the designers and manufacturers of these innovative touchscreen products, we can’t help but feel that a few of them are head of their time, while others are just out of touch!
Have we missed any? Contact to tell us of any other unbelievable touchscreen applications you’ve encountered, or if you need some help with your own new touchscreen project.
