It’s always nice to see sustainable designs make its way into the computing realm, but we’re torn between getting really excited and scar(r)ed for life with the new Oreé Touch Slab. It’s not that the gesture touchpad doesn’t look awesome – it does – but it’s made with a single piece of maple or walnut wood. Green and environmentally friendly? Yes. Asking for a splinter each time you play Angry Birds on the Web? Well, we’ll see.
The multitouch Touch Slab is compatible with any Mac OS or Windows 7 and 8 platform, and comes equipped with Bluetooth so you can control your screen wirelessly. Little details are revealed about how the sensors can detect human fingers and movements underneath a slab of wood – we’re guessing the top layer of wood is thin enough for the technology underneath to recognize various gestures. Perhaps the wood is coated in some sort of conductive chemical, then polished down to protect the users from possibly hurting themselves when aggressively gliding their fingers over what looks like a splinter minefield.
To take your mind off of that, now’s a good time to mention that the Touch Slab comes with a number pad to go on top of the device so it’s not all swipe-based. This accessory could be useful for those who prefer square arrangements of numbers instead of a keyboard’s horizontal alignment.
If you want to own this gorgeous touch pad and aren’t afraid of risking a few nicks here and there, Oreé is accepting pre-orders for the Touch Slab now at $200 apiece. The item is scheduled to ship on October 21st. While you’re at it, the company also offers other computing accessories made with wood, so if you want a wooden keyboard to go with that Touch Slab, go wild.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.