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ncc1701d · Hang-around Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 8

From what i understand touchstream mini uses a thin electromagnetic field around its surface and that the act of placing finger on it it disturbs this field causing it to know when its touched.

Now.... why will fingers disturb this field while other objects wont?
I am looking for another type of material that would work like a finger when rubbed or placed on surface?
any ideas or accidental discoveries?

what special quality does a finger have that other objects dont?

Would a piece of iron work?

thenn · Regular Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 77

Try ballistics gel, it has the same propeties as the human body. Mythbusters use it a lot.

RAFH · Posted: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 4:17 Post subject:

Fingerworks are based on differences in capacitance, I believe. So its not just your fingers, its your whole body. You can use knuckles too, though its a bit awkward. You can also use one finger from each hand, side by side. The board recoginzes a pattern. That's really the magic involved, the capacitance/inductance hardware thing is snazzy, but its the pattern recognition that is the sweets.

I haven't tried to elbows yet, but I am sure it would work. What would be interesting would be if two people were holding each other, if they could use one finger from one hand each and it would act as two fingers on one hand. Have to try that out, could lead to interesting experiments in collaboration. Especially since the two (or more) people would necessarily have to have extensive physicle contact.
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ivanw · Posted: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:07 Post subject:

-jeffB · Posted: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 14:36 Post subject:

RAFH · Posted: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:16 Post subject:

I tried it with my wife and it works. Holding hands we could do mousing with two fingers on either side of the board. Not touching it wouldn't work. The cursor did jerk about some. Couldn't touch letters either. At least not when both of us were touching the surface.

Didn't get into any more further experiments, she said she had a headache. Crying or Very sad

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ncc1701d · Hang-around Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 8

is there any inamate object that has a conductance like a finger?
or something that allow human conductance to pass through or channel through?
Like interestingly a thin layer of tape on finger works fine but the more layers of tape added the less it works.
I dd like to have thimbal on my finger and have the conductance still work.
What would that thimbal have to be made of to channel my current through the thimbal to the keyboard?

RAFH · Posted: Sun, 03 Sep 2006 20:19 Post subject:

I would guess it would have to be something with some conductance, I just tried using just my fingernails, they don't work. (I have relatively long nails for a male). I would guess any sort of metal would work. But I would be concerned about scratching the surface.

You must have very sensitive skin or somehow your surface has gotten very rough. Mine is smooth as can be. I am on it 12 hours a day doing CAD. Then again, I have thick skin.

Have you tried cleaning it with Lysol as recommended? Maybe try coating it with corn starch, lightly and then polished off with a cloth. Perhaps a dry lubricant would work, but I don't have any ideas of what or what other side effects such might have. I think there are dry silicon or teflon sprays.
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khushaal · Familiar Joined: 01 Sep 2007 Posts: 39

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edit: for bad bbcode