Tuesdu chber30 2012 | ae@technewsii om MA‘I'I'I SCANNELL 5 Pressure sensitive grip for smart phones coming soon By Karlhik Kllmal' LAVOUT EDITOR imagine walking with your smart phoneonacoldwinterdayin chicagoand finde ing yourway in this huge metropolis One has to remove his gloves constantly and operate the touchscreen in the extreme cold Also imagine standing in a CTA train or bus which is fully crowded and using one hand to steady your self and the other to operate the smart phone This new Grip Ul makes that one handed interaction easier by adding pressure sensors to the left and right edges of a phone NTT DoCoMo has launched smart phones having this new user interface and showcase ing it at CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) These phones have a standard touch screen, but the users can also launch different apps by gripping the phone at different locations, ie these sensors react when they are squeezed These smart phones are programmed to identify a nume ber of predefined “squeeze gestures” that re spond to amount of pressure applied at vary ing locations on the sides of the smartphone Now with a growing demand for longer, wider phones, or soecalled Phablets, make the singleehanded interaction very dif ficult while using modern phones itbecomes difhcult for the user to move his fingers while maintaining a grip on the handset Therefore, to make the single handed interaction simpler, DoCoMo is looking into adding new ways to control smartphones with this new interface There are a few technical Kr sues to be worked out, like building a new sensor which can differentiate between the fingers used when they are placed across the device and be able to detect false positives and unintentional squeezes it would certainly be necessary for the R&D team to include the option of indie yidual deyice calibration as it will increase the usability factor and also develop an algorithm which could detect grip pulses which willbe more effective when compared to using long versus short grips for various commands But this new interface could open new avenues for user control Detecting the difrering pressure with the help of sene sors that are placed the whole length of the phone could lead to an expansion in pro gramming a number of difrerent commands Also for people with certain handle caps this new interface allows them to take full advantage of mobile device and presents a new option for game and program control Microsoft Surface Tablet previews large memory, lightweight build By Rollil Vandanapll LAVOUT EDITOR Look whos in the tablet market, increasing the rivalry The top elite company Microsoft, has announced its tablet “Microsoft Surface” to be launched to the market on Octoe berZé,ZUlZ it is an upcomingseries oftablets to be available in two distinctyersions one with Windows RTand anotherwithWindoWs 8 Pro windows RT is effectively the light version of windows 8, as it does not have the desktop version of windows 8, which runs only the apps offered by the windows app store and Microsoft Office windows RT is an upcoming version of the windows 8 operating system, and is being used for devices such as tablets it runs only on the software available through windows Store or the one in Windows RT The RT acror nym does not ofhcially have an explanation A few months after the launch of the Microsoft Surface windows RT tabe let, the windows 8 Rio tablet will be avail able in the market which will completely run on the Windows 8 operating system The following are the tech specifications for the tablets Processor This is the vital part of the sys tem windows RT runs a Nvidia Tege ra 3 CPU While the Surface Pro runs on intel third generation Core icRu Screen The RT version ofthe tab letwill have 1,366‘768 screen, While the Surface Pro verr sion will have at least l,980‘l,080 pixels The screen size for both the tablets is lUérinch The screens 169 aspect ratio is identical to that of HDTV, which implies all entertainment can be viewed in full screen with no stretching or letterboxing it does have two digitizers one for touch and the other one for digital ink As long as the stylus is being used, the touch sensor will be off so that there are no discrepancies Covers There are two types ofcover and key boardattachments TouchcoyerandTypecoyer Both the covers are attached magnetir cally to the edge of the tablet and can act as either a cover for the screen or a key board it allows one to type comfortably Camera Both the versions of the Sure face have front and rear HD cameras Weight Surface RT weighs 23 85 ounce es while Surface Rio weighs 318$ ounces Thickness &Battery Surface RT is 9 3mm thick and Surface Pro is 13 8mm thick Storage Capacity Surface RT version offers store age capacity of 326B and 646B while the Surface Pro offers 646B and 128GB Price The RT 326B starts slightly a high average new tablet Windows from 3499 which is er prlce than an imagecoumg ofrrimosofmrr ID/eatr’e ego/e Rechargeable Batteries Regular bulleries can now be disposed of in Hue lrush! Single ruse batteries are no longer tonsidered household hazardous waste and are safe to landfill ethey were onte made with mertury but that Was discontinued as 0f1997.The City ofChi(ago has di5(ontinued their battery re(y(|ing program. Rethargeabie batteries on the other hand still (ontain materials thatare hazardous if iandfiiied and should be (ollected and recyded separately. Due to this (hange, We're updating the battery retytling bins on tampus.rou tan now throw away your normal alkaline batteries in the trash.rhere is (urrentlya bin set upin Galvin Library nearthe stairs where you tan throw away all rechargeable batteries. ihose intiude batteries from: Cell phones, eiettrit shavers, eiettrit toothbrushes..basitaiiyanything you would plug in to reuse. Look for this updated signage around the binsi IIT Office of Campus Energy and Suslainabilily campussuslainabilily@iil.edu Submit your Halloween costu me 8t name to asste ditor@technewsiit.com by midnight on Friday, November 2 8t we'll print our favorites in next week's issue!