Air-display (via Displair)
Water vapor and touch screens normally wouldn’t be thought of as being combined to create an emerging new technology of interactive displays. Those that have had the privilege of inadvertently introducing water, in any form, to a touch screen usually resulted in new and interesting ways of using expletives while wondering why they skipped purchasing the extended warranty. That combination is precisely what one Russian (located in Astrakhan) company, known as Displair, has done in developing their interactive touchscreen. The company has recently shown their water-powered marvel at this year’s CES held in Las Vegas. The display, also known as Displair, works using a thin cold wall of water vapor (produced by cavitation much like a humidifier), which acts as the devices screen. A projector (looks to be either a FogScreen eMotion or Pro fog unit) takes images; video or any interactive app from any touch capable devices connected to it and displays the content onto the misted wall of water. The display system uses an infrared camera and depth sensors to capture the user’s gestures (up to 1,500 simultaneous touches with a lag of only 0.2 seconds) which provide the illusion that the screen is actually interactive. The secret to making the water vapor tangible enough for use is the size of the water particles which are produced on such a small scale that the particles surface tension and stress are increased which make them incredibly stable even after they collide with objects.
According to Displair, the droplets don’t leave a wet trace after collision, will not freeze over even down to temps as low as -580 Fahrenheit and won’t lose cohesion in high temps up to 1220. While the display has incredible potential in the area of entertainment it has other possibilities as well such as the Russian Alma Group who plan on using the display for psychotherapy treatments and the Russian Medical Group will adopt them for use as an interactive reception terminal in their various institutions. As it stands right know the company will be offering the Displair for $10,000 US by the summer or fall of this year (2013) and will eventually be available to the consumer market sometime in the next 5 years. If you absolutely need to use one post-haste they are available for rent at the steep price of $1,000 US per day.
Cabe
