
Show HN: Check out the 23" Android 'tablet' I made for $600 - martythemaniak
http://martin.drashkov.com/2011/09/android-megapad-23-android-tablet-for.html
======
martythemaniak
I want to post a longer and more detailed post in a few days, but at a high
level, this is a TI Pandaboard (dual core 1GHz, 1GB RAM) running Gingerbread
attached to a Quanta touchpanel (the Acer T230H in this case). The monitor
costs around $330, the pandaboard around $175 and you'll need a few other
things like a power adapter etc.

The setup is a bit laggy in parts for different reasons. Google earth shows a
lot of IO errors, while the launcher just wasn't made to push that many pixels
around - taking the resolution down gets rid of it. On the other hand, once
the GPU takes over in Fruit Ninja, everything works fine and is actually quite
a lot of fun.

Like I mentioned in the post, the size of this thing makes simultaneous use by
2 people practical - Fruit Ninja is a lot of fun with 2 people and games like
Flight Control will work very well too.

~~~
kodablah
Since multi-touch is disabled in Android (in the US) due to patent issues,
would this harm the ability to have simultaneous use?

~~~
tadfisher
It's not disabled. At least not on any Android device I've tried within the
last 2 years. Pinch-to-zoom has worked since 2008 IIRC.

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mhd
Maybe it's just that I'm damaged too much by resistive touchscreen terminals
(rural startup flashbacks…), but I wonder whether this really will be _the_
future. Someone at the BUILD conference mentioned that we'll be looking back
in wonder that there was a time when monitors didn't have touch input. On the
other hand, didn't we try stuff like that quite a few years ago? If not
touchscreen, then lightpen input… "Gorilla arm syndrome" comes to mind.

But just like the recent wave of 3D movies, I'm not sure whether it's a case
of "the technology caught up" or "those who don't know history…". Zeus, I
sound positively luddite here. Don't get me wrong, I really like my ipad, but
the applications, the form factor -- the whole use case is quite different.
Well, let's see… Wonder if I'm repeating the words of command line geeks after
they first saw a Macintosh in '84…

Didn't want to digress from the post _that_ much. It _is_ a cool project,
martythemaniak. With cheap enough screen and support hardware, we'll probably
see a lot more terminals in the wild. A bit of sheet metal and plastic, a
portrait '23 inch screen and some custom Android-based firmware and you could
make some great info and tourism terminals. And if no one's working with them,
you'd have a reasonably large area to show ads.

Or VESA mount it, and you'd have a great info panel similar to the Panic
Status Board[1], with some direct interaction possibilities.

[1]: <http://www.panic.com/blog/2010/03/the-panic-status-board/>

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I can't see how a vertical monitor is helpful. Some of the touch screen PCs
that HP and Lenovo have launched tilt back so you can use your hands without
gorilla arm syndrome.

I imagine the bigger hurdle isn't the tech, but selling people on horizontal
monitors that they're touching all day and the lack of a keyboard (or keyboard
as non primary input).

I feel like we're stuck in this middle land of tablets without kickstands and
PC monitors that can't turn into horizontal touch screens. I imagine there's a
compromise here that'll work. Maybe all-in-one desktops that tilt with hide-
away keyboards and tablets with built-in stands and perhaps even little pens
for when you're using an app not optimized for tablets or if you need to draw
or mark up a document.

~~~
Steko
Someone will come along in the next 2 years and do haptic feedback right and
hardware keyboards will go the way of the floppy drive. There's been a number
of patents recently on this front from basic haptics to displays with
controllable surface texture.

~~~
eftpotrm
No.

On even a netbook keyboard I can type at pretty much full dictation speed if I
have to, with high accuracy. I can feel if I've made a mistake, I can feel if
I've hit two keys rather than one or if my hands are drifting off centre.

I am utterly, utterly unconvinced that that level of performance is going to
be available from a haptic touchscreen any time, particularly at a cost
comparable with keyboards I can buy for less than the cost of lunch. The
patents may well be interesting and have all sorts of beneficial applications,
but wholesale replacement of computer keyboards by them isn't one.

~~~
Steko
So with haptics you should be able to:

(1) type at pretty much full dictation speed if you have to (some people can
already do this)

(2) Feel if you've made a mistake.

(3) Feel if you hit 2 soft keys rather then one if your hands drifted.

I don't see what's so unbelievable then; even today the physical keyboard has
been removed from the most successful new devices. That's without haptics.
Long term I suspect the keypress paradigm itself will fall to gestures which
you don't even need a screen or keyboard, a camera can track your finger
movements.

------
trebor
Enquiring minds would like to know the hardware / android-image you used for
this project. Tablets, even large ones, are nothing new now... but I'd really
like to know how to build my own.

~~~
ctz
I'm guessing, with no evidence whatsoever, that this is an off-the-shelf
desktop all-in-one running android x86.

Something like [http://www.ebuyer.com/281328-acer-aspire-z3101-aio-
desktop-p...](http://www.ebuyer.com/281328-acer-aspire-z3101-aio-desktop-pw-
seue2-061)

------
drats
Touchscreens were popular before Apple in business applications. That might
not be hipster enough, but Apple certainly didn't invent or popularize them.
Further, at this form factor, you have that Microsoft table as well as a great
many all-in-one touch screen computers from HP and Lenovo et al. Can we please
not credit Apple with inventing another thing they didn't invent?

~~~
lukifer
I would say their relationship to touch interfaces is similar to their history
with mouse-based GUI: they didn't invent it from scratch, but they innovated
upon the existing ideas in ways that helped the technology reach mass market.

~~~
eftpotrm
Only if you've got a short memory.

Think back to 1999-2000ish. Palm Pilots were The Next Big Thing, Microsoft
were pushing Windows CE handhelds of which every OEM had to have their own.
Psion had their wonderful but sadly disregarded Series 5.

There was a large ecosystem of handheld touchscreen devices that was frankly
pretty close to mass market many, many years before the iPhone, and from which
I'd suggest iOS and Android borrow a number of interface concepts.

~~~
lukifer
Admittedly, what qualifies as "mass market" is highly subjective. But I think
it's fair to say Apple's innovations greatly accelerated adoption in both
areas, opening up the technology to large numbers of people who would have
never used it otherwise.

------
jadedoto
There's a project here in my town by a couple of my fellow engineering
students working on a related idea they're calling awesometouch. They've
installed a few in our city already as far as I know.

I don't believe they're running Android, and the machines are pretty special
purpose, but still similar in concept as far as huge touchscreens go:
<http://awesometouch.org/>

~~~
oflannabhra
Yeah, awesomeTouch runs some custom Java on top of Linux, although both their
hardware and software have most likely evolved since last I saw.. They just
did betaSpring, I believe.

Also, hail from Lexington!

~~~
aerosuch
LexKY in the house! Our team just got back from Betaspring, we have come a
long way since our early days hacking with the NUIGroup / CCV tools:
<http://nuicode.com/projects/tbeta>

We've narrowed our focus to indoor map applications. We're still deploying
them on giant touchscreens with AwesomeTouch, but have also started a project
called BuildingLayer to aggregate & crowdsource maps for the insides of
buildings (because people always get <http://lostinabuilding.com>). And just
ask John King from CNN, the only thing better than games on a giant
touchscreen are maps!

------
bitwize
This doesn't exist.

In three years Apple will invent it, brand it perhaps as iStation, and sell it
for $10,000 at which point it can officially be said to exist.

It will only run software from the App Store.

~~~
mortenjorck
I take it you're going for irony here, but, well, your hyperbole is right: as
a shipping product, or anything other than a very cool hardware proof of
concept, this absolutely does not exist.

When Apple invents some new UI conventions suitable for such a form factor,
spends years testing and tweaking them, engineers all the hardware to fit
neatly into a single unit with optimal battery life, builds a cost-effective
manufacturing process and ships it along with an SDK full of frameworks
custom-suited for such a large touch surface, then it will exist.

And yes, it will only run software from the App Store.

------
TechnoFou
It's a great idea as a gimmick, but on the long run gravity will soon make our
arms go down on top of our mouse and keyboards. Maybe if it is inclined then
it would make more sense since it is a more natural position. The point is
that it isn't very ergonomic and we all know that programming on a 90 degrees
touchscreen isn't a super idea! Still, it all depends on the UI and the use!
Great experiment!

------
dotBen
So, I'm really keen to do something like this but with a dining table and a
projector set above it.

I had dinner at Inamo in London last week - their tables are essentially this
kind of set up.

The interface is projected onto the table and from there you order your food,
play games, watch live streams from the kitchen, etc.

Here is a video (apologies for the music, but this is the best video I could
find:)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el71OBLyfDs>

~~~
wanorris
In other words, like a Microsoft Surface table, but set up for dining?

What's the advantage of using a projector over a touchscreen?

~~~
egypturnash
The first thought that comes to mind is _spills_. Spill stuff on a table, no
problem, you just wipe it up like any other table. Spill something on a
touchscreen and you have to worry about it gumming up the works.

~~~
mbreese
That's why you'd _project_ the UI on the table. Spills? no problem. But,
you'll have a projected image on top of everything that's on the table (food,
utensils, your arm...)

~~~
jallmann
Wouldn't be an issue if you projected it from the underside, even though that
doesn't seem to be the plan here.

------
matthiasb
I remember trying a prototype from Microsoft about 5 years ago. It looked like
a giant touch screen coffee table
(<http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx>). The price at the time
was 50k euros if my memories serves. I remember thinking I would wait a few
years before getting one:) Looks like this time is coming soon!

~~~
jeroen
That is Surface 1. Version 2 looks a lot better. See the CES 2011 demo here:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NesSYWODmM>

------
hellweaver666
I'd like to see some pictures of the device itself from different angles, a
touch screen monitor is not a big deal in this day and age.

------
patrickk
Very nice. Reminded me of a smaller touchscreen project I saw online - the
iPhone-inspired, touchscreen, WinXP-based kitchen computer:

[http://www.studio-lights.com/blog/iphone-inspired-kitchen-
to...](http://www.studio-lights.com/blog/iphone-inspired-kitchen-touchscreen-
computer.htm)

------
curt
If you decide to put this into production and need help/advice on how to bring
the costs down, manufacturing, or logistics let me know. Really you just need
to standardize the hardware, find one manufacturing that uses nearly all those
parts and you'll be good to go.

------
fara
Great job! I think 13" would be THE size to experiment on since it would be
almost the same as an A4 sheet of paper.

------
ctdonath
Build a few into my desk already!

------
pointyhat
That's going to be awkward on the toilet.

~~~
krobertson
Maybe have the monitor on some sort of swivel mount in the bathroom? I think
that'd be awesome... but maybe awkward to type on a touch keyboard that big.
:)

