Wood probably isn’t the first material that you associate with your computer, but Orée‘s wooden Touch Slab is a beautifully organic way to navigate mouse-free.

Each Touch Slab is made from a single piece of wood. It is hollowed out and equipped with a capacitive sensor and circuit board on the inside. The side is then sealed up with a thin piece of the same wood and the finished product looks just like a natural slab of wood.

The wooden slab comes in maple or walnut wood and can be sent to you plain – just a piece of wood with the Orée logo in the corner – or engraved with a numeric keypad. A simple gesture is all it takes to switch between touch pad and keypad.

The Touch Slab is accompanied by Orée’s wooden keyboard, another anachronistic piece of computer hardware. Both work with Mac or Windows and connect with your computer via Bluetooth. Both devices start out at €150 (just over $200 US), so you’ve got to be pretty committed to the organic look to outfit your desk with these beauties.

The post Splinter-Free Swiping: Stylish Wireless Wooden Touch Pad first appeared on Gajitz.

Most of our devices utilize touch technology in some way: the track pads on our laptops, the screens on all-in-one desktops, and just about everything on our smartphones. Even when the gestures are deemed “intuitive” by the manufacturers, in reality they are unnatural movements we get used to by using these devices.

Chris Harrison of CMU’s Future Interfaces Group is working on a set of virtual tools called Touchtools that mimic the physical tools we use in the real world, making our interactions with technology simpler and more life-like. The suite of tools includes a marker, a large eraser, a small eraser, a camera, a tape measure, a magnifying glass, and even a computer mouse.

By using gestures that correspond to the way we would handle these objects in real life, the novel interfaces make remembering and using the actions simple and truly intuitive. Users hold their hands in the position they would if using that tool in real life, pressing a hand into the screen to activate and use the tool.

Rather than the cumbersome toolbars that some programs utilize, the Touchtools allow for fluid interactions with the device. There’s no learning new commands or remembering how many fingers to zoom or double-click; just the natural motions of using real-world tools converted to a digital setting.

The post Conceptual Digital Tools Use Real-World Hand Gestures first appeared on Gajitz.

When the Clapper showed up on late-night infomercials, the way we turn lights on and off was revolutionized forever. the iOn has a similarly game-changing purpose: to change the way we switch our lights from on to off and back again. Arguably a little less convenient than the Clapper, the iOn can change any light switch into a touchless capacitive switch that you have only to wave your hand in front of.

The iOn works with the same technology that touchscreens use: capacitive sensing. But you don’t have to actually touch the iOn to make it work; you only have to wave your hand in front of it. That’s because its capacitive field is much larger than the typical touchscreen. The iOn even lets you put a conductive object into its capacitive field to extend its reach. A metal statuette, a decorative item, or even a fishbowl can become your light switch.

Replacing your current mechanical light switches with iOn is simple, as you can see in the product’s Kickstarter video above. It can be installed flush against the wall or even inside of the wall so your houseguests will be utterly stumped when they try to find the light switch in the middle of the night. Custom plates can be installed over the iOn to personalize the system and give a visual clue as to the whereabouts of the light controls.

The iOn doesn’t only control lights; anything with an on/off switch in your home can be converted. Some of the examples given in the Kickstarter pitch are ceiling fans and whirlpool bubblers. But one of the most interesting features of the system is that it can be controlled remotely via a smartphone app. You can switch lights on and off or create a random switching pattern when you’re away from home to fool any wiley characters in your neighborhood.

The post Capacitive Light Switch Does Away With Grimy Flip Switches first appeared on Gajitz.