A Giant Touch Screen that Works With Gloves

Getting cold? Tired of having to remove your gloves when swiping or tapping on your touch screen? A Swedish start-up called FlatFrog may have the solution for you. The company’s in-glass touch screen “uses scattered light to provide multi-touch,” reports ElectronicsWeekly–meaning you can even activate it while wearing your gloves.

The company’s first product launched at the ISE Trade Show in Amsterdam. It’s a screen that might be a little too large for your smartphone: an HD 32-inch LED-backlit affair, 55 mm thick.

If the company delivers on its promises, FlatFrog may be pointing to an era not just of warmer fingers during winter months, but also of ubiquitous, larger touch screens.

“Imagine a restaurant table which is a touch screen where each seated guest can order from the digital menu and play a game or read the paper while waiting for the food,” the company said in a release announcing the product. “A wall in a fitting room where you can see yourself in a variety of garments and colours. Or a gaming table where the participants play electronic poker with each other.”

Don’t just imagine it; take a look for yourself. (Please bear with the irritating music and overdramatic close-ups to get to the cool stuff, or just skip to around the 00:27 mark.)

What are the various ways we might use technology like this? FlatFrog imagines a few in another video from its site. Turns out we may not need coffee table books anymore, when our coffee tables themselves become entertainment portals.

Further videos show that the product was a hit at ISE. And though I’ve tried my hardest to get through this post without mentioning a certain Tom Cruise movie… does this technology remind you of any other interface?

No? Are you sure?

Minority Report, guys. I’m talking about Minority Report. This thing is like the Minority Report interface.

And one more, for good measure. The gaming possibilities of the screen, of course, are endless. Makers of bar favorite Photo Hunt, watch out!