With advancements in touchscreen technology, people are rethinking how they interact with their devices. The days of using an external keyboard and a clumsy mouse could soon be long gone. According to Wired, a Portuguese company called Displax has created a thin, polymer film that can be peeled and stuck onto glass, plastic or wood surfaces — transforming basically anything (opaque or transparent, round or flat) into an interactive touchscreen.

The film is about 100-microns thick (i.e., really, really, thin), is equipped with a grid of nanowires, can measure anywhere from 3- to 120-inches diagonally, and, most impressively, can detect movement from up to 16 fingers at once on a 50-inch screen. To do so, the film uses a technology similar to what’s used on the iPhone; which, as you probably know, is pretty darn responsive to touch. But Displax’s film can do something that even the iPhone’s screen can’t. It can detect your breath (although we’re not sure why you’d want to interact with something by blowing on a screen).

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Thin New Film Turns Anything into a Touchscreen originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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