Touch Screens with Pop-up Buttons......Future touch screens may need to supply tactile feedback

Touch-screen technology has become wildly popular, thanks to smart phones designed for nimble fingers. But most touch screens have a major drawback: you need to keep a close eye on the screen as you tap, to make sure that you hit the right virtual buttons. As touch screens become more popular in other contexts, such as in-car navigation and entertainment systems, this lack of sensory feedback could become a dangerous distraction. Thanks to technology review I came accross this article

Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed buttons that pop out from a touch-screen surface. The design retains the dynamic display capabilities of a normal touch screen but can also produce tactile buttons for certain functions.

Graduate student Chris Harrison and computer-science professor Scott Hudson have built a handful of proof-of-concept displays with the morphing buttons. The screens are covered in semitransparent latex, which sits on top of an acrylic plate with shaped holes and an air chamber connected to a pump. When the pump is off, the screen is flat; when it's switched on, the latex forms concave or convex features around the cutouts, depending on negative or positive pressure.

To illuminate the screens and give them multitouch capabilities, the researchers use projectors, infrared light, and cameras positioned below the surface. The projectors cast images onto the screens while the cameras sense infrared light scattered by fingers at the surface.

The idea of physically dynamic interfaces isn't new, and in recent years, researchers have explored using screens made from polymers that can alter their shape when exposed to heat, light, and changes in a magnetic field. However, these materials are still experimental and relatively expensive to make.

Simpler systems, such as those that use a flexible material like latex and a pneumatic pump, have also been explored by researchers in the past. However, these systems haven't had all the capabilities of the Carnegie Mellon project, Harrison says. He explains that the display is the first to combine moving parts (the pop-up buttons), display dynamic information, and be touch sensitive. Other projects and products usually achieve two of these three criteria, he says.
"Microsoft Surface does graphics, and you can touch it, but it's totally fixed," Harrison says. "Buttons on a dashboard have great tactile input, but there's no display. And it's not like you can just deform an LCD screen and . . . make it electrically conductive at the same time."

Because the system is pressurized, the pressure information can itself be used as an input, Harrison says. For example, if the screen were used to control an MP3 player, a person could press a button harder to scan through radio stations or songs faster. While many touch-screen displays can also register different levels of pressure, the glass or rigid plastic used doesn't provide any tactile feedback.

Rob Miller, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, says that this type of interface is particularly likely to find its way into car dashboards. "When you're driving a car, you're situationally impaired," he says. "Your eyes need to be on the road, not hunting for the right button and watching whether you pressed it right."

In a small user study involving the Carnegie Mellon display, testers found the pneumatic buttons as easy to use as static ones while taking a simulated driving test. They also glanced at the pneumatic buttons only as often as they glanced at the physical buttons.

Due to its pneumatic nature, the system is currently fairly large, but Harrison says that he is trying to find ways to shrink it. "You can't get a pump inside a cell phone," he says, "but one possibility is to have a balloon and squeeze it using a conventional motor."

Researchers Make Paper Stereo Speakers .... now just combine them with the ink-wallpaper

ok, the next cool thing is the flexible speaker. Can you imagine a poster of your fav. artist that also plays his/her/their music or a poster of a movie playing the theme:) And the nice thing is they are working on a BT version as well. This would definately deliver wife proof surround sound speakers (but you still need a subwoofer). It also has the potential to recreate projection screens. Imagine a projection screen where the center speaker actually is the screen reflecting the sounds coming from the screen. Would be great in videoconferencing. Now just connect is to the technology to create interactive wallpaper and the wallpaper is not just an image but a movie with sound

The article as published at PCWorld:

A Taiwanese research group has developed stereo speakers in paper, which will lead to low-cost speakers perfect for thin devices such as LCD TVs or even talking movie posters to be used as advertisements.

Engineers at Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have already produced rolls of paper stereo speakers and say they will be used in cars starting from next year. They are also planning a splash introduction of the new technology at a big exhibition in Taipei next year in which they will unroll a three-story high banner that can blare out tunes.

"A lot of companies are interested in this product," said Chen Ming-daw, a research director at ITRI. "We don't have enough people to handle all the attention right now."
They call it Flexpeaker because you can roll it up or fold it just like regular paper.
One cool way the technology will be used is on movie posters.

The goal for the researchers is to be able to mass produce standard poster-size speakers (A2, or 60centimeters by 44cm) costing just US$20 each. Movie makers could then put out posters with soundtrack music or movie highlights emanating from them as people walk by.
The special paper is made by sandwiching thin electrodes that receive audio signals and a prepolarized diaphragm into the paper structure. A special Flexpeaker adapter between the MP3 player and the speaker is used to play music through the paper. But in a year, ITRI hope to develop a chip that will do away with the adapter and allow people to plug a digital music player directly into the speaker.

They're also working on wireless technologies.
In July, the group will show off its first Bluetooth enabled paper speaker, which will eliminate the need for wires, said Liou Chang-ho, project manager of ITRI's Flexpeaker initiative.
One limitation with Flexpeaker is that while It's very good with sounds at frequencies between 500Hz to 20KHz, it doesn't handle low frequency sounds well.

That problem can be offset by adding a subwoofer to any system with the paper speakers, said Liou. That's the idea ITRI is working on for LCD TV makers. The paper speakers are so thin that they're perfect for the current push to ultra thin LCD TVs, a maker simply has to add a subwoofer to make a quality sound system.

ITRI is already working with a company to produce the speakers in rolls, like rolls of paper.
"Once it's being made in rolls, the cost will drop a lot," said Liou.

NICT Reveals Display Operated by Touching Floating Image

Apr 17, 2009 11:57

Yukiko Kanoh, Nikkei Electronics

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), an independent administrative institution in Japan, developed a display that can be operated by touching an image floating in the air.

For example, the "floating touch display" is expected to be used for medical purposes and for cooking because it can be operated while keeping the hand clean or operated with a dirty hand.
Optical devices developed by NICT are arrayed on an LCD display to show an image on the display as if it is floating in the air. The position of the fingertip touching the floating image is detected by an infrared touch panel with no glass.

The floating image is very solid. And it is possible to view an image that is staying motionless in the air even when the line of sight moves in any direction.

The optical device developed by NICT is an imaging optical device that uses a micromirror array to form a real image from a mirror image. This optical device enables to display a floating image by forming a real image as a concave mirror or convex lens does. However, different from them, it does not distort an image even when the image is formed from a 3D object; therefore, the position of the image does not move regardless of movement of a viewpoint.

There is a problem that the size of the optical device is too small, limiting the size of the floating image. But NICT plans to solve this issue by developing a new manufacturing technology. It aims to display a full-size image of a person in three years.

Mitsubishi Demos '3D Touch Panel'

Sorry for the level of detail. This story is pretty technical but pretty interesting as well so I decided to put it in the blog. Don't worry if you do not understand everything. Just imagine what can be done with a 3D touch screen



Mitsubishi Electric Corp prototyped a capacitive touch panel that can detect the distance between a finger and the panel and demonstrated it at Interaction 2009, which took place from March 5 to 6, 2009, in Tokyo.

Mitsubishi Electric calls the touch panel " 3D touch panel" because it can determine not only the x- and y- (plane) coordinates of a finger but also its z- (normal direction) coordinate. The prototype has a 5.7-inch screen with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels (VGA).

The prototype is intended for use in mobile devices with a small touch panel. For example, the company envisions mobile devices equipped with a "mouseover function," which changes the image of an icon when the mouse pointer is placed on it.

This time, Mitsubishi Electric had a demonstration of moving a finger toward thumbnail icons and icons on a map and changing their shapes.
"We think the mouseover function is more useful in smaller screens," the company's spokesperson said.

By calculating the time variation of capacity in the z-axis direction, "the acceleration of the finger approaching the panel can be detected," the spokesperson said. With this method, the panel can determine the speed of the approaching finger.

"If the backlight is designed to be red when the finger moves fast and blue when it moves slowly, emotional changes of the user can be reflected on the panel," the spokesperson said.
Switching between two detection methods. The prototype can detect the distance of an approaching finger while using ITO transparent electrodes.

When the finger is not in contact with the panel, the capacitance change is smaller compared with when the finger is in contact with the panel, requiring high detection sensitivity. Copper electrodes would provide a sensitivity high enough to detect an approaching finger, but they are not transparent. But, if transparent electrodes are used, the sensitivity becomes lower than that with copper electrodes because the resistance value of the panel increases.

Therefore, Mitsubishi Electric decided to switch detection methods depending on the position of the finger. When the finger is approaching the panel, it is defined as "proximity state." When the finger is in contact with or very close to the panel, it is "contact state." In the proximity state, priority is given to the sensitivity. And, in the contact state, the resolution is prioritized.
In the proximity state, the panel can detect a capacitance change of about 0.3pF, and about 8 to 19pF in the contact state, according to the company.

The resolution in the x-axis and y-axis directions in the proximity state is equivalent to 10mm. In respect to the z-axis direction, "it is possible to determine the distance of the finger as long as the it is less than 20mm," the spokesperson said. The resolution in the z-axis direction is 256 stages.
In the contact state, the resolution in the x-axis and y-axis directions is equivalent to 0.2mm, the company said.

In addition, the response speed varies depending on the position of a finger. In the proximity state, it is about 50ms and about 10ms in the contact state. In respect to power consumption, "there is no difference between the two states," the spokesperson said.

To improve the sensitivity in the proximity state, multiple sensors are connected to increase the sensor area. In general, sensitivity improves in proportion to sensor area.

Furthermore, a function called "sensor shield control" was added to reduce the parasitic capacity of the circuit. The electrodes in the x-axis direction and those in the y-axis direction are located ones on top of the others. When sensors are operating, the sensitivity lowers due to the increase of parasitic capacity caused by the electric potential difference between the upper and lower parts of the electrodes.

Therefore, Mitsubishi Electric reduced the parasitic capacity by applying signals of the same phase and potential. Also, the sensor shield control function eliminated the need for a shield layer that reduces electromagnetic noise generated from an LCD panel.
Only few changes made

The prototype is based on a capacitive touch panel that is available on the market, and "only a few changes were made to it," according to the spokesperson. Mitsubishi Electric just added switch elements to connect multiple sensors and improved the detection circuit to reduce its parasitic capacity, he said.

"Our research and development division does not consider that those improvements will significantly increase costs," he said.
The commercialization schedule of the new touch panel has not been determined yet. But when it is commercialized, "it will first be used for our products," the spokesperson said. The company plans to verify its resistance to environment as well as operability in actual devices for the commercialization.

The capacitive method employed for the prototype is a projection type, which is suitable for mobile devices and difficult to be applied to large screens. But Mitsubishi Electric is now working on measures to meet the requirements of screens that are 10 inches or larger. The new detection method cannot be realized with surface capacitive touch panels, according to the company.

The Facility Technologist: A Call For Change

I was just reading a nice blog post/article from Tom Condon, RPA, FMA which has been published in the March 2009 issue of Today's Facility Manager. In a minute I will just lazy copy and paste the article (original can be found here) but before I do I like to point out that this is a great example why some technical parts (AV, security cameras etc) should be managed by IT. Tom sais Facility managers in general are not part of the building process early enough and this might be a fair comment but even if they are, are they capable of making the right decisions about stuff that needs to be on the IP network and that should talk to other components (eg the room reservation system that talks with the mail application (mostly MS Exchange), Camera's that should broadcast and be web viewable over the IP network (do they get the proper bandwidth to generate useable images/video streams) etc). So this might be a great call to involve the facility manager early in the process but to me it is even a bigger call to hand over stuff to IT (and have them early in the process as well). Then you have one single IP network with everything not just connected but also remote manageable and having the appropriate amount of bandwidth

Ok, here is the article (with is links at the end) with some highlights I put in there

All facility managers (fms) want technology in their buildings. Whether it’s in a small office buildout or a large skyscraper, technology is an increasingly critical tool for achieving the levels of performance that occupants now demand.

There are so many great technologies out there to help fms achieve their visions for the 21st century. And yet, the same fms who are technology enthusiasts are so often stymied by limitations that they inherited from the design and construction of their facilities. They would like to employ the most advanced technology, but find they are limited by what they have inherited. Consider the following examples:

One fm had a brand new facility and wanted to get Web access to her video surveillance cameras so she could view cameras from home at night and weekends—a great way to stay on top of what is happening. But she found that the video system in her brand new facility was analog only, and she’d have to replace the DVRs to get Web access, which was too costly to justify. The sad part? Web enabled DVRs would have cost only slightly more than the equipment that was installed. Unfortunately, the designer saw only the cost, not the extra functionality, and opted for the lowest cost option.

Another fm wanted to incorporate additional IP cameras to a digital video system, only to find there was not enough capacity on the security IP network. Ironically, a completely separate IP network was installed for the building automation system, but neither the security nor HVAC designers knew it. The combined capacity of the two networks was more than sufficient for what the fm wanted to do, but individually, they were too small. The end result was a costly replacement of switches on the security network, and the overall cost of the two networks was far more than what a single, efficient system would have been.

This scenario replays itself over and over again. But why are there so many disconnects between the technology needs of fms and the design of their facilities? One problem is that the fm is often not involved in the design until it is finished, and the building or buildout is already underway.

Sometimes the fm is not even involved until move in. This is a big mistake, as it assumes there is only one way to manage a facility. This approach fails to consider the fact that organizations are all different, and each one has special needs and uses for technology.In 21st century facility design, the fm should be involved as early as possible in the design of systems and the selection of products. No one will know which functionalities and attributes systems should have better than the fm.

Another big impediment to the implementation of facility technology is that the structure and process of traditional building design and construction has not kept pace with the evolution of technologies. In the traditional development process, an owner employs a team with an architect, engineers, and other designers, and the project is divided up among them. Each has a task that is viewed as distinct, with no need for each to work closely with the other designers. There is coordination at a macro level, where each individual design is incorporated in the overall design, but the individual designs are considered separate and distinct, and there is usually little collaboration.

This process has evolved over the last 100 years and reflects the 20th century paradigm in which each facility technology used its own individual hardware, cabling, and power. These systems never interacted in any way, and they operated on incompatible platforms, so there was no need for designers to work together. This is now an obsolete approach to designing a modern facility and the technologies that serve it.Today, facility technologies often use common hardware and cabling.

For example, access control, digital video, HVAC controls, and visitor management can all operate on the same IP network and can all share the same hardware using a virtualized server design. (Right now, I am sitting in a facility where VoIP, HVAC controls, access control, and digital video all reside on a single IP network that cost less than if these systems used their own individual infrastructures.) Not only can this approach cost significantly less than if each of these systems used its own cabling and individual servers, it is also easier to manage and secure a single system.

But it is impossible to create a comprehensive facility technology design with the fractured and disjointed approach that is now considered the standard. In a facility that seeks to employ cutting-edge technologies, there needs to be a single point of contact for the overall design. The technology designer (TD) advises consultants on which systems to select, the design of the building network and data center, and the ways that building systems will interact with each other in the completed building.

This person must be knowledgeable in all of the different technologies—and their latest advances—used in modern facilities. Just as important, the TD must also be able to understand the different perspectives of the traditional groups that are involved in design, construction, and management: operations (including facility and property management), security, IT, and A/E/C. This ability is referred to as being “quad lingual” in and around tech circles, and it is one of the key factors in the success or failure of complex facility technology projects.Here is an example of how this works. Right now, my firm is working on a one million square foot building. The owners wanted to ensure they would have the most advanced facility technologies, so they tapped us to make their wish list a reality. This is an insurance policy against the fate that so many facilities suffer, finding that they are constrained by technology limitations based solely on the use of an outdated design paradigm.

Changing the design process is not easy, and adding a TD to the team may be a stretch for more traditional professionals accustomed to doing things the 20th century way. But they will need to adapt to this new approach eventually; better to do it now and become an early adopter, rather than doing it later and becoming a casualty of advancing technology.

Condon, a Facility Technologist and former facility manager, is a contributing author for BOMI Institute’s revised Technologies in Facility Management textbook. He works for System Development Integration, a Chicago, IL-based firm committed to improving the performance, quality, and reliability of client business through technology.

Past Facility Technologist columns can be found here. To chat about this topic and others in real time, visit FacilityBlog.

Kyocera Unveils Kinetic Flexible OLED Cell Phone

Charting the future of cell phone technology, Kyocera recently unveiled a kinetic energy-powered phone that is capable of folding up like a wallet. Designed by industrial designer Susan McKinney, the EOS phone consists of a soft, semi-rigid polymer skin surrounding a flexible low-energy OLED display. Shape memory allows the phone’s keys to pop up when in use and blend in with the surface during downtimeThe Kyocera EOS can be used in its folded-up shape for simple phone calls, unfolds to reveal a wide screen, and we were excited to hear that the it derives its energy from human interaction. The more you use the phone, the more kinetic energy is turned into an electric charge through an array of tiny piezoelectric generators. In other words, you’ll never have to worry about leaving the house with a semi-charged cell phone again.

The EOS is still in the early design stage, but Kyocera teams in San Diego and Bangalore hope to integrate concepts from the device into cell phone lineups in the near future. Maybe future

The world is your computer

Computing is starting to think outside the box as researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launch a “wearable gestural interface” that can turn your wrist into a watch, your hands into a photo frame or your newspaper into a TV. SixthSense comprises a pocket projector, mirror and camera – as well as some very clever software – developed by the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab.

The system was unveiled at the Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference in Boston, April 4 – 9. Researchers at MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group, led by Dr Pattie Maes, said the idea behind SixthSense was to create a link between our digital devices and our interactions with the physical world. The team wanted to free information from its traditional confines of paper or a digital screen. The prototype is comprised of a pocket projector, a mirror and a camera. The hardware components are coupled in a pendant like mobile wearable device. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognises and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques.

The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the coloured markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction. The SixthSense prototype implements several applications.

The map application lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures, similar to gestures supported by Multi-Touch based systems, letting the user zoom in, zoom out or pan using intuitive hand movements. The drawing application lets the user draw on any surface by tracking the fingertip movements of the user’s index finger. The system is also designed to recognise a user’s freehand gestures (postures). For example, the SixthSense system implements a gestural camera that takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the ‘framing’ gesture.

The user can stop by any surface or wall and flick through the photos he/she has taken. SixthSense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognises those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check their mail. The SixthSense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analogue watch.

The current prototype system costs approximate $350 to build.

GM goes down the drain while new promising car companies are rising

Ok, I've been looking at cars lately (since our baby was born we discovered the old car was way too small). And When looking at cars (we bought one already but still looking at what the future will bring) I noticed that the coolest cars come from new, innovative and relative small companies (in case of Tesla funded with dot com money). And at the same time the old dinosaures are going down (GM for example). I think the reason for going down is not being innovative and not listening to the world.

I searched a bit for electric or hybrid cars and what I found was horrible. No electric or hybrid car from one of the dinosaures is a true innovation compared to the cards designed by Tesla or Fisker (and others)

Why are the traditional car manufacturers not able to make the next step (some use a currect model and make it a hybrid like MB or lexus for example) and some create a new one (the prius or totally electric the Voltz) but still they have not been able to use the possibilities from an electric car and create a new car. I think Tesla and Fisker have demonstrated that a green car doesn't have to be ugly. As a matter of fact it can be green, good looking and sportive while at the same time being a nice familiy car (Tesla model S) with plenty space (2 trunks instead of 1 and an engine room)

At the same time I see some nice initiatives for public recharge stations and when on the move and a recharge takes a bit too much time you can simple swap the battery pack in 5 minutes. And in case of a big disaster we do have some spare enery in all car battery packs:)

When looking at this from a employability perspective companies will need to provide these stations in a few years from now and since governments are giving big tax savings on these electric cars it will be worth for employees to drive one (and companies, what about green image, cost savings etc)

So the next big thing in employee benefits is not a big bonus but free electicity to recharge your car

a nice link to more e-cars

Apple, Sony ang Google make your life easier

It might sound a bit strange, the combination of Sony, Apple and Google but together they are doing some nice stuff on (geo)tracking. So far these are seperate applications but it gives a clear direction for the next few years on what to expect.

Google obviously is known for search but also for their maps and what you can do with it. Well Sony now jumps into this with GPS tracking on their latest HD videocameras (the option was alreay available on their photo cameras as a seperate add on). This means you can easily track your complete vacation in picture and video (HD) on Google maps (pretty cool on your multi touch dining table, both for preparing the trip as well as showing it to others afterwards but how to navigate easily though this on a TV with the 10 foot experience .............. suggestions, please let me know))

Now Apple comes in with their iPhoto version 8.0. This has face identification and recognition and it goes pretty far. if for example you notice it's not seeing someone's head, you can right click and ask it to "Detect Missing Faces."

It goes back to the picture and guesses at new potential faces. The upside is, it will probably see the face you want it to see, without you manually marking it. The downside is, it may well see faces where there are none. I tried it, and it worked, but it doesn't make the facial recognition smarter, just

less discriminating.

If you use the "Add Missing Face" feature to manually draw a box around a known face, this new software will actually also search that box to see if it can identify the face. This has not immediate impact on your life, but it means that if iPhoto does see a face there, where it didn't before, it will "count" it when doing facial recognition stuff.

When you are using Faces to name people, it now pulls names from your Address Book. This means, when you start to type in a name, you immediately get choices. If you don't like all your friends being so formally listed with first and last name, you can change the tag globally very easily later, on the Faces corkboard home screen.

Another very helpful improvement in Faces is the ability to name other people when confirming shots of a particular individual. Like, say you have a bunch of shots of yourself—if you know a shot isn't you, you right click that shot and choose "Name," then add in whoever that person's name is. It's helpful because before, the choice was either "Yes, this is me" or "No, this is not me."

segway 2.0

Segway allways has been an ubergadget but now with the crisis they came up with a great new model (together with GM). Actually you can sit in there (no more standing all day) and most important, useable when raining so it can be an alternative for commuting (when you travel less than 20 km before reloading)

So far it might not be the most sexy electrical vehicle but it is most likely cheaper and smaller which has great benefits as well if you can miss the leg room and trunk space

Acer is bringing a multitouch all in one to the market as well

Great to see HP getting some competition here. Just read on Engadget that Acer is bringing us a nice multi touch all in one as well and from the pictures it looks pretty nice



Press Release:

A ‘Touch’ is all You Need with the New Acer All-in-one Multimedia and Aesthetics in 24 inch
2009-04-08 - New York In time, the multiple uses for computers have undergone evolutions and transformations. This doesn’t just involve simple work tool with highly technical performance features. PCs have become real companions for all daily activities, now indispensable to just about every household. Today the aesthetic appearance of the PC is more than just a bonus, especially in context of the home. Features such as design and proportions have gained even greater importance.

Acer has attentively followed the new market trends and has amplified these new dynamics through focused research and development that has demonstrated that rich specification into All-in-one no longer needs to command the extraordinary price premium seen today.

The result of this research has led to some really interesting news: the new All-in-one Acer Aspire Z5600 PC, characterized by its sought-after design, a spacious 24inch display and grand multimedia capability represents a current revolution in the world of PCs and it is engineered to maximize the full promise of the next operating system from Microsoft called Windows 7. Apart from the many refinements of Windows 7 over Vista, the Aspire Z5600 offers full touch screen capability at an affordable price. No longer do users have to be limited to the use of keyboard and mouse controls or be restricted with expensive propriety touch implementations, with the Windows 7 touch capability, users may freely alternate control of the PC with mouse or touch at their ergonomically enhanced leisure.

The miniaturization of internal components has allowed the all hardware to be placed on the rear of the LCD display. The result is an All-in-one device that merges power and elegance in a streamlined device. The new Aspire Z5600 is a mainstream affordable PC that guarantees elevated functionality thanks to the latest generation of Intel processors and spacious HDD capacity of up to 2TB. The latest generation of MXM graphic processors ensures optimum multimedia performance.

The Acer Aspire Z5600 is perfect for complimenting the most sophisticated environments and can be easily positioned in any room of your residence, from the lounge to the study or a child’s room. The new silver Aspire Z5600 is an entire digital entertainment system that integrates all the necessities of a true rich multimedia PC; including TV tuner to watch and record favorites television programs, integrated webcam for video calls to keep in touch with relatives and friends, and an incorporated DVD/Blu-Ray player/writer combo for playing back or burning movies, music and video.

The 24inch touch screen guarantees an extremely instantaneous and intuitive recreational and professional multimedia experience. With the simple touch of a finger it’s possible to select, to browse through files, start applications and to navigate menu options to manage data, audio, video and image files. At any time, the touch screen option can be easily converted and the Aspire Z5600 can be used like a general mouse and keyboard PC.