Rachel Metz reports a study done by researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University and reported at the Computer Human Interaction Conference in Denver. The study conducted revealed that many types of devices can be turned into touch pads by simply spraying the surfaces with conductive paint, adding electrons and computing when they are pressed. When conducting the study, the researchers bought conductive spray paint that is typically used to coat electronics to lower the electromagnetic interference. The researchers sprayed the paint on several objects including a table, a steering wheel, a toy dog, a wall and a map of the United States. In the course of the study, they attached electrodes to the perimeter of each study object then connected the electrodes to a sensor board. The sensor board was connected to laptop running software that they had already developed (Metz, 2017).
All the objectives that have been connected to the sensor board are now conductive. When one of these conductive surfaces is touched, the electrical field created by the sensor board and electrodes is distorted. These distortions are picked up by the sensor board; the software analyzes them and determines where the touches occurred. Consequently, the sensor board determines what should happen after the distortion such as moving a virtual slider up or make a sound or pressing a virtual button. This innovation can be used to detect objects like the presence of gestures and hands on a steering wheel. They also used this technology on a wall to control the lights; they tapped the wall and could turn the light n and off and slide a finger up and down to brighten or dim the light bulb (Metz, 2017).
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Winner’s Critical Thinking Question
This document will focus on one of winner’s critical thinking question to discuss Rachel Metz’s article. The question that will be discussed is question one, “how will the technology be used? What are its functions and practical benefits” (Winner, 2012).
How will the Technology be Used?
As explained earlier the technology will be used to make most of interactive objects responsive to touch. The technology uses readily available items to make the touch pads. Spray paint and electrodes are the most important objects to make the objects responsive to touch. All kinds of objects can be made into touch pads using these simply acquired items. The researchers have reported that the innovation ‘electrick’ can be 99 percent accurate in determining whether or not someone was touching them. The average touch tracking distance error is less than a centimeter. This makes the technology reliable and easy to use thus it can be applied by people conveniently and cheaply (Metz, 2017).
What are the Functions and Practical Benefits?
The researchers stated that objects that were previously static and non- interactive such as toys can be made interactive. The Carnegie Mellon’s innovation dubbed as ‘Electrick’ by the scientists can be used to make materials such as plastic, silicone and Jell-O responsive to touch and used for computing when they are pressed on. The research outcomes are meant to make touch tracking cheaper because the materials required such as paint and other parts are readily available. By commercializing this product, people will be able to acquire cheap touch pads with convenience (Metz, 2017).
One disadvantage of the innovation is that the process is wired in most steps such as the connection to the sensor boards and to the computer. However, the researchers have stated that the process can be made wireless because the sensing board contains a Bluetooth module that can be accessed. The Bluetooth device can be used to put data into a smartphone app thus making the whole process wireless. Another drawback is that the researchers have not yet ascertained the durability of the process. The researchers have said that even when they protect the conductive paint with another coating, they cannot be able to determine how durable the technology is. In addition, electromagnetic interference from the electronics such as microwave and lights affect the touch tracking data. This makes the process unreliable (Metz, 2017).
References
Metz, R (2017). A cheap, simple way to make anything a touch pad. MIT technology review. Retrieved on May 11, 2017 from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604337/
Winner, L. (2012). Artifacts/ideas and political change. In M. Winston & R. Edelbach (Eds.), Society, Ethics, and Technology (4th ed.) (pp. 83 – 89). Boston, MA: Wadsworth.
