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Design

Transform Non-Metal Surfaces Into Interactive Touchscreens

It’s what we’ve all been waiting for. Right?

Displax, a company who produces interactive technology, has created something called Skin — a flexible, thinner-than-paper transparent polymer film that can be laid over any non-conductive surface to create a multi-touch interactive screen…which makes those office whiteboards with illegible scribblings look so 20th century. With additional apps it’ll be able to display photos, videos, and most importantly social networks, plus play multi-touch games.

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While it’s being pitched for corporate use, imagine how it could be integrated into interactive installations and art works. By being layered over existing art it could create digital hybrids, re-imagine paintings, or bring museum walls alive in pixelated form. At the moment the technology’s quite pricey, but the concept is interesting nonetheless. The tech know-how is below:

An innovative controller is able to process multiple input signals it receives from a grid of nanowires embedded in a polymer film attached to the enabled surface. Each time a finger is placed on the screen or a user blows on the surface, a small electrical disturbance is caused. The micro-processor controller analyses this data and decodes the location of each input on that grid to track the finger and air-flow movements.