Weekend watch: Quadcore Windows 8 tablets, ultrabooks and amazing eye control for Windows

Here’s something interesting for the Weekend. During CES, there was a lot of ultrabook love. And tons of those ultrabooks had Windows 8 on it. Some had touch screen interfaces to fully utilise the tablet nature of Windows 8. The PC manufacturers were displaying their feathers, as was Intel and the newcomer to the Windows Desktop game, ARM.

What I found most interesting was a new method of interaction using your eyes. Eye tracking isn’t new but it’s not something that’s used in controlling PCs. Well here you can navigate the computer, clicking on things just by looking at it to select. No mouse, no trackpad, no touch. Just tap the thing you’ve selected. It’s funny seeing the surprise of folks trying it out for the first time and seeing it work. If you didn’t have to do the whole clicking of a button and just used your eyes, to me, that would kinda feel like you’ve got some super powers. Like a nerdy, techy magneto that just moves things on a computer screen (there’s some superhero that controls electronics stuff right? I can’t recall their name).

In addition to just us controlling a screen, imagine how companies can use the possible data they could collect such as what things your eyes gaze at the most. What ads are literally catching your eye. How long was that gaze for? If an add got skimmed they could improve it with something that attracts you more. If it goes a little further, with iris and retina biometrics they could use simply your eyes to recognize you. Add some kinect-gen2 wavy gestures to all this, all you’re going to need is a trio of Precogs. Imagine games with it. You just know there’s an Angry Birds Eye-Eye (Aye-Aye bird) edition.

1) Intel and Windows 8 ultrabooks.

Sensors. Accelerometers in an unltrabook? Is that useful? Maybe for rotating something like a PDF perhaps. It would be odd, but kinda like holding a book. A proper one with a spine in the middle. Ultrabooks are light enough to hold like that. Well most of them, there are some cheating with the ultrabook name when really it’s just a slim laptop.

by CNETTV

 NVIDIA’s QuadCore Tegra 3 Windows 8 tablet.

NVIDIA say they haven’t worked with anything this exciting since Windows 95. 95 giving consumers, home PCs, Windows 8 apparently giving those mobility.

iPad is the tablet of choice right now. My Medical school has given out iPads as ‘learning devices’ as a test this year and will roll them out next year. Similar things has happened in many other universities around the UK and around the world, and beyond that, in work places, in schools etc. It is quite a daunting post PC World. There’s a genuine usefulness about tablets and iPad was the first one to do it right and show people this form factor can work.

The PC market isn’t going away any time soon though, but MS can see that the future belongs to mobile devices. Nokia can play a significant part, not just in delivering phones but also perhaps ultrabooks and tablets on Windows 8. We’ve already seen they can design an ultra portable that could make Sir Ives proud. Just take on what Nokia’s learnt from the booklet 3G, upgrade it to a form factor like the ASUS Transformer Prime and you have yourself a winner. Seriously, it could be useful as a tablet and as a traditional keyboarded thing when you actually want to do some work.

Controlling Windows 8 with your eyes.

Awesome.

No fingers to block the view. Also consider how quickly your ocular muscles can contract and move your eyes (as well as their precision). You can select things super quick. I wonder about eye strain. I guess if you think about it, your eyes are looking at the things you’re selecting anyway. Another nice thing with this is that you can avoid playing T-Rex with the mouse cursor, i.e. hunting around for the little moving arrow.

by EyeTrackingOEM

by CNETTV

First time use of eye control.

I think as with anything, the new input takes getting used to. Like touch screens and multitouch gesture trackpads. This guy was really surprised it worked.

by und3rgr

With Nokia starting to become more recognised as the preeminent Windows Phone manufacturer, and their ability to come out with something as quality as the Booklet 3G in 2009, imagine if they take a stab and the tablet/ultraportable market. Preferably they’ll do with with a transformer. (Have you seen the specs on the new Transformer Prime? Insane! I’m not sure if there’s as much limitations on Windows 8 as there is on Windows Phone so I guess there could be an equivalent.)

Category: Nokia, Windows