
Xperia Touch makes any surface interactive - astdb
https://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/smart-products/xperia-touch/
======
sksareen1
Not sure why the skeptics are all down on this - I think this is awesome. If
nothing else it's a great POC product that will get imitated and integrated
into other ecosystems (can imagine Google incorporating this into the next
Home device), and opens up the world. No use case? Ever needed to watch
something, or show something but lugging around a 30'' screen wasn't an
option? You can make ANY surface an interactive input device and screen. From
consumer to industry applications I see a lot of potential.

If they make this a key product it could grow, but if Sony licenses it out
(yes I know they're not really big on that), it could open us up to a whole
lot of applications and integrations.

~~~
monk_e_boy
We use touch enabled projectors in schools all the time. That technology is
way over five years old. I can't remember the last time I saw a classroom
without it.

The first thing my 5 year old son does when he gets to school is to drag is
name into the school dinner part of the board -- registration and meal choice
all in one.

I wonder if they make a clean room version of this? Would be neat to have in
hospitals and theatres (for surgery) and in the hospital clean rooms (labs
etc)

~~~
tekacs
I was always under the impression that those devices in schools weren't
capable of making any surface touch-sensitive, but rather only the whiteboard
itself, using sensing on the whiteboard (IR touch?).

This Sony device seems to enable the former, however.

Happy to be corrected.

~~~
laumars
In fairness to the OP, there are other devices out there that do make any
surface touch-sensitive, such as projection keyboards[1]. I remember seeing
those devices being released more than a decade ago, thinking these kinds of
devices would be the future. It has surprised me it's taken this long for the
next evolution of this product to come to market (possibly due to licencing
issues with IBM?) but it's really exciting now that it is finally here.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_keyboard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projection_keyboard)

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adambrenecki
Pricing is €1,499, according to [http://bgr.com/2017/02/28/sony-xperia-touch-
release-date-pri...](http://bgr.com/2017/02/28/sony-xperia-touch-release-date-
price/)

This would be awesome if it weren't for that price.

~~~
Jonnax
It's one of those products that are quite unique which drives up the
manufacturing cost. But also niche enough that it won't sell in large volumes.

~~~
puranjay
You think this might catch on, reducing price over time? Cause I'd love to
have something like this.

~~~
giarc
If it becomes popular enough, others will enter the market which will drive
down costs. I could see Xiaomi creating something similar.

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tjelen
TheVerge has a nice hands-on video of the prototype, which I think explains
the whole thing better than the official website:
[https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/2/27/14737824/s...](https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/2/27/14737824/sony-
xperia-touch-projector-android-touchscreen-mwc-2017)

I like the projector mode a lot.

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sethherr
This is awesome and exciting.

Looking at it I can only be disappointed in science fiction's failure
(specifically tv and movies) to move beyond Minority Report inspired glass
touch screens.

~~~
et-al
I wouldn't necessarily blame science fiction as a whole, but the moreso the
concept artists or directors for sticking with physical touch screens. And
while many may think of _Minority Report_ as the innovator for interfaces, the
current _Avengers '_ Tony Stark has a holographic interface that he
manipulates in space.

(I'm just as excited as you are because I had the same idea in middle school,
but until a manufacturer like Apple implements it in a flagship device, I'm
just considering this a novel gadget. And as another aside, I always thought
the idea of moving screens the way Tom Cruise does as super tiring--lemme just
nudge that Thinkpad nub.)

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Analemma_
This looks like one of those products that would be extremely cool _if_ it
worked as well as advertised, but also not likely to do that (which is a
recurring theme with the so-called "Weird Sony"). I once tried that
"projection keyboard" in a Sharper Image store at the mall and it seemed to
register about 20% of my keypresses. It's totally possible the tech has gotten
better since then, but I'll wait to see reviews before I spend any money.

~~~
obtino
There are electronic whiteboards which behave in the same way and work
extremely well.

~~~
malnourish
Have smartboards improved? I've had nothing but bad luck with them

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bobajeff
Combining a projector with a touchscreen and Android. Sounds like a bad idea
until you see the person cooking while scrolling through a recipe on the
counter.

~~~
colanderman
In every kitchen of every home I've ever lived in, counter space has been a
premium. A tablet affixed to the wall is a lot more practical for 1/20th the
cost. But I suppose if you can afford this gadget, you are probably not
wanting for kitchen counter space.

~~~
NTripleOne
I mean if all you want to do is scroll through recipes in a browser, you could
get away with one of those ridiculously cheap chinese tablets that cost like
$30.

Or a first gen nexus 7, they're piss cheap now too.

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oliv__
Why is this not everywhere? I find this way cooler than over-hyped VR.

~~~
hexomancer
I mean it is cool but how is it cooler than VR? VR can achieve the exact same
effect as this and more.

~~~
sirmike_
Yes I think it is much cooler than VR. This would be used every day. No one is
going to use it on a table to to play the 2 half decent games it can do
/snark. But in the kitchen in the wall mode, with some good Google Assistant
integration. Vs VR? No one uses VR everyday. However the cynic in me guffaws
at the VR price level. Jesus Christ. Way to much. At least with an ok VR rig I
have a general purpose computer to use or put to work. Maybe I'm wrong but I
can see this being used everyday in the morning and evening. It would become a
fixture. VR only exists for gaming. No one is going to put VR goggles on every
day to watch the news or check the time.

~~~
andybak
> VR only exists for gaming. No one is going to put VR goggles on every day to
> watch the news or check the time.

False dichotomy. There's a huge range of potential and real applications for
VR that are neither games nor "watching the news".

Pop back here when you've tried SoundStage, TiltBrush, some decent social VR,
CAD or interior design in VR, some high-quality VR storytelling experiences,
training/education VR, historical reconstructions, music visualization, data
visualisation, a physics sandbox, visual programming, interactive character
animation etc.

------
hawski
Sony seems to make cool devices like this one. Or like the ePaper one for $700
[0]. But price seems too high for them to achieve a wide success.

[0] [https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-
digitalpaper/resource.sol...](https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/show-
digitalpaper/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-show-digitalpaper-
digitalpaper.shtml)

~~~
wapz
That's a sad thing about sony products. I know they can justify the prices due
to high R&D costs but it makes it difficult for the average consumer to
purchase their products (I'm fairly sure I'm not their target). For example, I
went to the Sony showroom in Japan in 2006/7(?) and they had a cool bluetooth
speaker that rolled around based on the music it was playing. The problem is
it was ~$350.

~~~
shinratdr
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Rolly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Rolly)

~~~
wapz
That's the one!

> _the Rolly Choreographer software produces far better results when it
> analyzes tracks and creates motion files before loading them onto Rolly_

I like how the staff just happened to _not_ tell me about that part (thinking
back I'm almost positive the demo had pre-loaded tracks)

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TronFourtyTwo
I started having a good opinion of Sony while ago, when I knew how they behave
[See Sailfish OS and in general their openness (not complete at all, but
better than others one) regard android platform]. I hope the better for them.

~~~
kalleboo
Sony Mobile is still somewhat separate from Sony itself I believe, since the
Sony Ericsson days when it started out mostly the old Ericsson mobile team.
E.g. they still have development in Sweden (although with continual layoffs).

Back in the day Sony Ericsson and Sony were night and day. Sony made DRMed
ATRAC players, and Sony Ericsson made walkman phones thst would let you
Bluetooth MP3 files between phones right from the music player.

------
ousta
I dont understand the skeptics its amazing to have a company such as Sony in
the engineering and product design landscape doing things like this. I believe
they have always been the best product company in the world, they might have
shitty marketing and sales spitch but comon, the Vaio were a marvel of
computers, sleek looking with nice specs, the Aibo is probably the greatest
consumer product ever created and a marvel of imagination, their phones were
precursors noticably the xperia compact were the only phones on the market
that provided high-end performance for a small size (later to be copied by
apple btw), the playstation is an amazing system and has always been, actually
most of their product range is amazing, their cameras are the best on the
market (the sony A7S is a marvel of engineering), their 4K Ultra Short Throw
Projector is crazy as well. Really we owe much to this company and for me this
has always been the only giant that I ever respected.

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toomanybeersies
The website makes it look, essentially, like a 1.500 € toy.

I don't need a touch screen to watch a movie with a projector, I can use a
whiteboard to write messages, I can even point a projector at a white board
(which is common for teachers to do). I don't think I would ever put such an
expensive device in the kitchen while cooking.

I'm all for innovation, but this does seem like a bit of a solution in search
of a problem. I guess you could say the same about VR, and now they're coming
up with good business cases for it, but VR hasn't been touted as a consumer
device from day 1, it's only now after some time that it's reaching the common
man.

~~~
blazespin
No, it definitely has huge uses. Mostly on a wall though. It's a massive
portable touch screen. Think of demos. The problem is glare, you'll need to
dim the lights to use it.

------
mmjaa
Musicians can use this immediately. I'd like to write an app for it that I can
use with my piano.

In fact, pretty much any object could be the use-case for this. Very exciting
.. I wonder when they'll be available in Europe.

~~~
puranjay
How do you overcome the tactile nature of musical instruments though?

~~~
Neliquat
Exactly. Even as an electronic musician, I find myself going as tactile and
kino as possible when trying to be expressive. Anyone can sequence notes, and
notes don't make music. This will be good for producers, but not much value to
musicians.

~~~
puranjay
Exactly. My usual workflow is to build out my songs on a physical instrument
(Guitar for the main chords -> a keyboard for the melody), then sequence them
in Ableton.

It just feels more "natural" to create something new on a physical instrument

------
prawn
When the price comes down, I can see this having potential. Beam recipes up on
the kitchen splashback, or household notes on a wall in the kitchen, table-top
games for the kids, office status board on whichever wall suits. No need to
wall-mount a display or connect a projector to a PC.

There are obvious limitations, even if they never improve the contrast, there
are still a lot of decent use cases.

------
capybara
This reminds me of the very cool research of Chris Harrison, a professor at
Carnegie Mellon. Lots of interesting work thinking about different ways to
interact with computers.
[http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/Welcome](http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/Research/Welcome)

------
kzahel
Somewhat similar, Sony's project T
[http://www.futurelab.sony.net/T/](http://www.futurelab.sony.net/T/) has a
popup demo at 717 Market street during business hours. Anyone off the street
can drop by. They have several other demos installed.

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spookyuser
I have no idea how well this works in real life. But if the interactive
surface is even close to what the video shows then isn't a big portion of the
microsoft future concept video [1] fulfilled?

[1]
[https://youtu.be/w-tFdreZB94?t=2m22s](https://youtu.be/w-tFdreZB94?t=2m22s)

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josefresco
I'm especially interested in the walk by, weather/clock feature. Instead of
mounting an iPad/LCD on the wall I can just drop this on some furniture and
have the same "persistent display" experience. Having my calendar display
would also be very helpful.

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batat
Awful contrast on lit surfaces (like any projector)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW8kzP7qnD8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW8kzP7qnD8)

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TYPE_FASTER
This looks way better than sitting in a dark conference room with a projector,
trying to describe to the person projecting what you want them to do on their
laptop.

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anc84
23-80 inches (60-150cm) means the diagonal axis of the projection surface,
right?

How bright is 100 lumens? Sounds very very low to me compared to standard
lighting bulbs.

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patrickg_zill
Typical Sony... neat execution but engineered to be built cheaply.

720P video in 2017?

3GB RAM?

Not room-bright, but you have to dim the lights to use it?

Fixing all the above is technically possible but would cost more.

~~~
LeoPanthera
Do not let perfect be the enemy of good.

~~~
patrickg_zill
I just don't want good to be the enemy of "even better" :-)

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ekianjo
Good idea but poor branding - Xperia is known for phones, and not for anything
else. They should have called it something else.

~~~
freeone3000
This is a tablet, like the Xperia Z4.

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dgudkov
I wish Google Home had a built-in projector like Xperia Touch. That would be
my perfect home device.

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amelius
Nice, but they conveniently painted in the shadows in most of the demo
imagery.

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nepotism2016
Looks awesome. Now I need someone to write up a Raspberry Pi version

~~~
glenneroo
Sony just has to get hacked again, but this time the hackers release code for
all their cool projects.

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ynniv
A _bad_ touchscreen. Every touch I see has the appropriate fingers
overextended and the others tucked away, as you would expect from a vision
system. We forget how much we hated touch screens before Apple made one that
works well.

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KaoruAoiShiho
I feel like if Steve Jobs were alive Apple would've made this.

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blazespin
Limited because of glare glare glare. Still, neat.

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Naushad
Nothing new here, POC concepts already done, concepts and code open sourced 5
years ago. Just new packaging with form.
[http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#ABOUT](http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/#ABOUT)

~~~
f_allwein
although some of my friends said the same thing when the iPhone came out.
Packaging and form do matter...

